“From the look on your face, I am assuming you have a plan in mind?” Jin asked, and Qiu Yue returned a half smile.
“Hamatarou is scouting the castle as we speak. Based on his prior knowledge, we already managed to create a rough map of where the villages are within the Giant city. Right now, he is trying to find out where exactly the Salamanders are all hiding. With him being contracted to me the System is updating anything he finds in real time.” Qiu Yue replied.
“As soon as he is done with the scouting, Lynn and I are going to help him by storming the place when they least expect it. We should be able to clear this particular hurdle for you by ourselves. After all, we were the ones contacted by him. Unless one of the enemies turns out to be so powerful that we can’t handle him, you can sit back, relax and take care of other stuff.” Qiu Yue added which made Jin thought for a while.
“Hmm… I shall get back to you when I am done with all those various meetings. Just promise me that if there is a drastic change in …say Hamatarou’s safety, or more importantly your own, then don’t hesitate to call on backup from either Peppers or Milk. I jump on the chance to participate with your mission, but for some reason, I’ve been unable that troublemak–”
“Original Bellator Kraft is currently busy and told System to pass User the following message. ‘Do not disturb me! I am having fun creating my new underworld gang! Go bother the other bellators! Or ask the System to release another Bellator! It’s about time you get a new helper!
“Speaking of which, don’t try to pretend that you’ve ever accounted for the possibility of me coming back System, so stop hold–‘ End of message.” The System stated.
“O….Okay. Anyways, we are helping that prince since he can potentially get us another army worth of minions for work and I can’t say no to that. Still, keep an eye on him for me, alright?” Jin asked Qiu Yue. She casually saluted at him after receiving her orders.
Lightly chuckling at her actions, Jin quickly returned to the Conference Room Instance and saw that the students were still chatting with Grandma Yuan.
“Sorry for the wait,” Jin announced his return which Grandma Yuan came up to him immediately. Instead of greeting him, he felt the already too familiar sensation of her stick once more. His face was blanked with anger and confusion. What did he do to deserve this, this time?
“You have the audacity to make an old lady wait.” The Demon Exorcist Instructor berated him, and it made the newly graduated Demon Exorcists laugh a little before they all bowed a little to thank Jin.
“What are you thanking me for?” Jin did not expect that kind of behaviour and told them to dismiss the formality.
“We initially believed the test you made us go through was just to prove that you were superior to us in every way despite the fact that Lein and I should have a higher grade compared to you.” Su Zhen represented their group to explain their actions.
“But the fact that we were clearly defeated by you in a one on three combat situation and you had the capability to lead us out of a precarious situation during the Demon Spider fight. So, despite our varied…differences, it had shown us that we were wrong about you.”
“You secretly turned the Demon Spider Fight into an examination which we had never even suspected…and it allowed us to gain the Demon Exorcist rank earlier than any students of our age. Well even though only Su Zhen got the full one, the rest of us are sure that under your guidance we will reach her level soon enough.” Lein, the Qilin Demon Cultivator, commented that Jin thought of them more than just workers and that he truly wanted to help the students grow.
“We also saw how you aided the people of the Tiangong Shopping district. You could have simply hide away in your store and waited for police or others to deal with it. Yet, you did not.” Rong added, and Lian nodded her head, saying that he was very brave to go against these many Ruby Rats and even the Mafia boss himself.
“But shucks, when you think about it, if he can kill the Mafia boss, that Grade 8 silhouettes have to be fake. He could possibly be as strong as Instructor Yuan.” Rong suddenly thought of it, and that comment struck the entire group as a possibility.
Jin did not understand where the sudden praises for him originated, and Grandma Yuan was the only one keeping quiet and smirking at him.
“Alright, enough of all this. We all have much work to do with the creation of the new Demon Exorcist Operation and Training Centre.” Jin began to give orders, and every one stood at attention.
As the dungeon supplier did not know what was needed in either of these centres, he had assigned each of them to visit various operation centres and training centres, taking pictures of the interior and their overall architectural design.
If possible, they were also tasked to interview the current employees and ask if they had any improvements in the work process or facilities. He then sent them travel allowances via his Pandamonium App into their electronic cash wallets.
They understood and went off without saying goodbye to their new Boss. “Kids no matter which age, are always eager to prove their worth.” Grandma Yuan said and now looked at Jin.
“Now that we are alone. Brat, you must have at least a few questions to ask me too.”
“Yes, mainly about how you used to operate the training centre. Did your methods differ from others, or was it the same as every centre.” Jin went straight to the point.
“Honestly my experience won’t be much help for you. You’ve been assigned to operate an advanced training centre. I can’t add much more than what has been told to you in the meeting earlier.” Grandma Yuan replied promptly.
“Your main objective is to allow the demon exorcists to get more exposure through these additional training. You can repeat what you did with the four or design it like an arena style kind of instance if you prefer.”
“Whatever the case, the most important thing is to make it as real as possible. Tsk, but given you have the System and can literally either send them into another world or get demons from there I doubt that will be a problem for you.”
“But is all this training even useful? The ones they will encounter won’t necessarily be those standard demons, right?” Jin asked as he offered Grandma Yuan to have a seat.
“Yes and no. There are some demons that persistently appear given their nature. Most of those are earth bound demons. Still, they could appear and take on various forms. It can’t hurt for them to get as much experience as possible.” Grandma Yuan said as she suddenly saw Lynn entering the instance.
The Grand Elder smiled kindly as she saw the Penguin Chef bringing along an exquisite teapot with her.
“Grandma Yuan. I’ve heard that you’ve come to visit us. I hope this time around this tea will be to your liking.” Lynn smiled widely as she graciously nodded and slowly poured a cup for her to drink. Grandma Yuan’s expression was filled with elation that she barely controlled herself.
Claire felt a little envious of Lynn being capable of satisfying Grandma Yuan’s desires for good tea, but at the same time, she was very delighted to see Grandma Yuan’s lighter mood.
“So, demons like fox spirits?” Jin continued his conversation, and Grandma Yuan, who was sipping her tea, nodded her head before turning and thanking Lynn before the chef left them for their conversation.
“Those, formidable types of Jiang Shi (zombies), skeletal demons like Bai Gu Jing and the list goes on. You should know that even the monster remains could summon a Demon if left unchecked. In most cases, it won’t hurt to burn the corpse.” Grandma Yuan answered.
“There were too many variations to keep track of, luckily throughout the centuries, JODE had managed to compile a detailed list for the most common ones and how to effectively deal with them.”
“The most crucial aspect for the advanced training centres is to foster teamwork like how you did for my students previously and to ultimately earn experience from victory and death.” Grandma Yuan added.
“I see…in other words it’s not too different from a typical dungeon run,” Jin concluded, and Grandma Yuan nodded her head.
“There are other centres that utilise Dungeon Suppliers and classroom setting, but the simulations were too predictable. Instead of preparing the Demon Exorcists, it had conditioned them, making them think that the actual demons were easy to kill, which resulted in several meaningless deaths.”
“Don’t you resurrect them then? After all the training they went through.” Jin asked seeing how the Demon Exorcists was exclusively from the Royal Zodiac Clans except for a few like Jin.
“You might be surprised, but even the Zodiac Clans do not resurrect them all unless the demon exorcist was of great importance. It used to be different, but in the majority of cases, those who came back developed various traumas prohibiting them from working their job.”
“Those who did also generally burned out eventually. It was bad enough if they died repeatedly, but in a lot of cases, their sudden breakdown in the middle of a mission also endangered their teammates.”
“A lot of our members are merely affiliated with the clan via name or through distant family ties. Nowadays when they perform the resurrection for the ones that matter, it’s the premium kind. Get what I mean?”
“Oh…even if you resurrect the incompetent ones, they might turn even more incompetent because of the side effects of bare bones procedure.” Jin thought of it a little.
“Those families within the clan who can afford the basic ones will still proceed as per normal, but they usually do not have the backing of the main clan.” Grandma Yuan then clarified that JODE was just an organisation that did the training and paperwork. Thus, the missions the Demon Exorcists undertook themselves were their responsibilities.
“Hahaha! Insurance would only cover that much either since it’s a job full of risk in the first place.” Grandma Yuan commented before looking at the time. The two discussed a few other matters which were mainly about the students and Grandma Yuan decided to leave for the day.
“Do not worry too much about the operation stuff. Just get the facilities and equipment prepared, and JODE will handle the rest.” Grandma Yuan bid goodbye to Jin.
Finally, he had some time to browse through his messages. His phone had been vibrating nonstop in his back pocket.
“This Ke Loong…” Jin chuckled and dialled his phone number to call him
