It only took an hour for Beatrice to reach her parent's guild, Twin Hydra. Named after the monsters that destroyed a country from southeast Asia. They thought it was going to be a good name as it represented them, they were a pair, and if one of them falls, the other does his or her best to help.
Their Guild House was large, but this only made it look even more empty. They initially thought that by picking a place near Taizhou Academy, they would be able to recruit future explorers, talented System Holders.
But the truth of the matter is, most of the graduates from the Academy always choose the more popular guilds, and the ones that apply for their guild rogue System Holders, most with dubious backgrounds.
But they too left. Beatrice's parents were not able to sustain the needs of their members as they couldn't get good Portals. The main reason is that they were stationed in the city, near the Academy where a lot of guards were stationed and any Portals that might e out would be instantly cleared by High-Level System Holders.
And since they didn't have any source of Crystals, they have been struggling to pay for the Guild House for more than 2 years now. Mistakes upon mistakes, her parents made. And now, it's pretty much only them.
And another truth was that Beatrice lied to Harvey and Van. She wasn't here to help her parents, no. She wasn't even here for the Guild House or to visit them, because her parents weren't even here in the first place. All she did was change her clothes and leave as soon as she was done.
With a sigh, Beatrice took one final glance to her parent's Guild and continued to walk further to the city. After another 30 minutes of walking, and Beatrice reached a huge clearing in the city, where lots of people were gathered.
The previous quiet scenery was gone, replaced by the cheers and roars of almost a hundred people. Their voices overlapped.
Beatrice remembered the first time she visited this place, the noise almost drowned her.
"We need one more! We need an Enhancer-type with high VIT!"
"Looking for a party!"
"A Rank-F Portal just popped out 2km away from the city!"
This place is where Rogue System Holders go to form a party to explore a Portal. Those who did not attend the academy, and those that didn't belong in a certain guild. In short, they were Free Explorers.
Was this gathering illegal? Not quite. There were too many Portals appearing every day, and the official guilds won't be able to clear all of them. Add to the fact that most of the Top Guilds were not really interested in clearing every Portal that pops out randomly, once could say Free Explorers were even needed.
However, since they do not officially belong to any guilds, altercations between them and lower-ranked guilds were quite mon, with official Guilds always forcing them to give up the Portal.
Yes, the Explorers' main goal was still to save lives and prevent another Portal Calamity from happening again. But still, one can't deny that it pays well.
And Beatrice… Beatrice has been going here for a few days now. She thought that she was in 2nd place, she thought that she only needed to surpass Van in order for her to be at the top.
But ever since they came back from Victoria's, no… Ever since Beatrice saw Harvey blocking Edward's advance head-on, she knew… She knew that Harvey had been hiding his true strength all along-- or maybe he just didn't have the chance to show it.
It made sense, though. Harvey might fool around most of the time, but he was still a Lauder. He was still a son of one of the wealthiest families in the country. He would have an almost unlimited access to resources and Crystals.
Beatrice won't be surprised if he was the highest-leveled freshman in the Academy.
First, it was Van, and then Harvey… and Victoria might be hiding her skills too. She is the granddaughter of the strongest Enhancer in the world.
Beatrice was surrounded by abnormally strong people. If they weren't here… she probably would be at the top.
"...
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