Chapter 141 139 - The Meeting II
After agreeing to showcase his ability, the 4 guildmasters, Milo and Mikael made their way down to a training hall. The association president had set aside his personal training room for Milo. His reasoning was that he wanted Milo to have a place free of extra eyes and also because his room was set up specifically for his strength. He was afraid that Milo's strength could possibly cause damage to a normal training room.
When they arrived, the 4 guildmasters stood off to the side with Mikael while Milo made his way to the center of the room. Milo started by simply showing he could use all 6 attributes. The four guildmasters maintained their poker face while Milo did so, simply watching him destroy training dummies with different elements. He then stopped and turned to the group of them.
"From here on out I'll showcase the extent of my ability, the interview was more so a way to prove that my control over the 6 elements existed as no one would've believed it if it weren't documented. My ability allows me to do more than simply control the elements, if they are compatible I can combine them to do things like this," Milo said as he lifted a ball of earth into the air, soon the surface of the rocks began to turn red as they heated up, until a ball of magma was floating near him.
Seeing this, the guildmasters finally began to show their feelings. They were definitely intrigued by Milo simply because he could control the 6 attributes, no other gatecrashers were able to do this after all. His introduction to the possibility of combining the elements broke down what they thought was previously possible, in a sense, by combining the different elements, Milo was able to create and control new elements. He then went through a few more combinations of elements, showcasing forming a flaming tornado, forming a mist that covered Milo's position, and finally creating a lightning storm, this was one of the very few three element combinations he could make. After doing so, Mei seemed to have a lightbulb appear above her head.
"So that's why your ability was called Disaster in the association database, you create mini natural disasters," she said, appearing to be satisfied with her ability to come up with that on her own, no matter how obvious it was to the others in the room. He then showed a few more things, mainly having to do with his control over the elements and the different ways he could use them in tandem with his equipment. Rather than showing this part off, he chose to let them take his word for it. He had already shown them what they wanted to see, the fact that he had more to show than what he showed in the interview.
In most cases, Milo wouldn't have agreed to show them his strength, this was a dangerous thing to do, especially in a society where an evil cult could be hiding in plain sight, but the people in this room were either people he knew personally or were well known figures of the world. Not only this, but they had valuable information he needed for when he took the fight to the Fellowship and he needed to gain their trust for that.
Once it seemed like the guildmasters were satisfied with his showcase of sorts, they moved back to the meeting room that they were originally located in. All of them seemed impressed with Milo's capabilities, other than one. Steven Smith still appeared unimpressed with everything he had seen, or so he made it seem. He sat at the table looking like he had something on his mind, his fingers tapping his chin as he continued to gaze at Milo with the eyes of a predator that was looking at his prey.
While Steven was doing this, the other Guildmasters had begun telling Milo their recruitment offers, all of them offering various amounts of money, higher positions within their guild, bonuses, and other things in an attempt to entice Milo over to their side. This was when Milo could feel the shift in the power dynamic. When requesting to show his ability, Milo was being put through a test to see if he was worth their time, now that he had proven it, the power was in his hands to choose.
While Helena, Mei, and Kristoff added more and more to their offers, an argument seemed to begin between the three of them. Tension was high as they tried to shoot Milo an offer better than the others. Mikael was able to somewhat keep things civil between the three of them, while Steven continued to sit silently. Eventually he seemed to get tired of their bickering and spoke up.
"You guys are complete fools," he said aloud. Upon hearing Steven say this everyone turned to look at him. He was as calm as ever as he continued. "All your offers mean nothing, an X ranked gatecrasher no matter how powerful would give a reaction to the amounts of money and perks you are offering him, but he hasn't reacted once."
Mei, who seemed impatient with Steven's remarks, opened her mouth, "So what? We have been adding to our offers, he's just waiting for us to finish," she said.
"That's not why he's been showing no reaction," Steven responded, "he's already made his decision of what he's doing, amiright Milo?"
Upon hearing this, the 3 guildmasters, as well as Mikael all turned to Milo. He was still sitting silently at the head of the table. Feeling the eyes of everyone on him, Milo felt now was a good time to explain his true intentions for the meeting between himself and the big 4.
"You see, my intentions for inviting you all here today weren't necessarily for joining a guild. You saw my interview and my answer about joining a guild. Whatever decision will help me achieve my goals is the decision I will make, and I will make those decisions when they are presented to me. My current goals aren't to gain fame and fortune through gatecrashing or joining a big guild. Following the attack on New York City, my eyes were opened to a lot of things. Mainly how dangerous the Fellowship is. My true intentions for today's meeting lie in gathering information. My current goal is to put a stop to the Fellowship. Their existence is one of grave danger to the peace of the world, in some cases more so than the beasts that reside in the dimensional doors. I watched them slaughter innocent people and for that reason I chose their eradication to be my goal. So rather than asking to meet with you today to discuss joining a guild, I would like to make a request to the four of you."
In the four guildmaster's position, all of them other than Steven were slightly annoyed that the teen in front of them had called them all here just to waste their time. Steven came expecting something like this, he was an expert at reading the room, and Milo's actions made no sense to him if it was truly about joining one of their guilds. His demonstration of his abilities seemed too transparent to him, as if Milo was trying to say that he trusted them with the information. Steven himself was intrigued simply for this reason, what kind of request was the teen going to make he wondered.
"My only request is for information on the Fellowship, my plan following graduation is to work as a mercenary, or perhaps I'll form a small strike squad of my own, I'm not sure yet. The main point of this strike force will be to hunt down the Fellowship. The more information I can gather, the sooner I can take them down and without them running rampant, it should make your jobs as guilds easier as well. If you do give me information, I promise to answer the call if you ever require my assistance."
Hearing Milo's request brought in mixed reactions to say the least. The oldest of the ones there, Kristoff and Mikael seemed to admire Milo's resolve. Mei was still butthurt that she had been tricked but thought that Milo's proposition wasn't a bad one, his ability was strong and if a high ranked gate were to appear it wouldn't be bad to have another strong gatecrasher to join them. Helena seemed the angriest of the group, she ran her guild more as a small military group rather than a usual guild, her guild's information was treated as classified, as if they were to leak information it could end with one of the other Big 4 getting a leg up on them in power. The final member of the meeting, Steven began to grin, he was able to see a bit of his old self in Milo. Willing to play dirty to reach his goals, Milo's scheme was something exactly like he would've done back in the day.
Of the four of them, Helena was the only one who hadn't responded to Milo yet. The Hunstmen, Olympus, and Sakura guilds had pledged an alliance to Milo. Helena eventually gave in due to the pressure put on by the other 3 guildmasters. At the end of the day it was just their information on the Fellowship Milo was asking for, and if he succeeded then they would be one less future enemy she'd have to deal with herself. The meeting concluded soon after with the Big 4 still trying to convince Milo to join their guild, albeit with less aggression than before. Mei in particular hadn't given up any hope and told Milo that he should come tour their headquarters before deciding. By this point Milo was satisfied, he had gained some powerful allies in the fight against the Fellowship, once he graduated he'd have a good head start at completing the mission given to him by Zenox.
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