The four demon exorcists were more than punctual, and all of them had come bearing gifts for Grandma Yuan even though simple well wishes would have been fine.
It was initially a little awkward at the table. After all, Jin had not really interacted much with them as their boss and given his personal situation, today was the first time he had the chance to congratulate the four for their promotion. The situation only got more complicated since they were supposed to study under him until all of them became Demon Exorcists, yet they were now an entire Rank above that.
Rank 2 Demon Exorcists
Such a rank customarily required at least five years of experience before being considered for such a promotion. To add on, it was a bit of an open secret, but Rank 2 Demon Exorcists were considered as the ‘real’ juniors of JODE. That was why previously, the Demon Exorcist Organisation had deployed a handful of Rank 2 and 3s to the scene when being asked for reinforcement for the Loopa Ooofpa fight as they did not deem serious. It was only until as the situation unfolds, they rushed to send out the higher ranking Demon Exorcists. (Ultimately those Rank 2’s only got to clean up).
It was a major embarrassment of the organisation if not for Grandma Yuan’s coverup of the entire situation. (Several administrators and coordinators had to take the blame for ignoring Grandma Yuan’s initial request and it was unfortunate for them since many a time the requests for help were over exaggerated.) Thus, awarding the four trainees were one of the hush benefits that Instructor Yuan received even though in her eyes, they were already as good as Rank 2 Exorcists.
Considering that these former trainees had been the ones who had fended off a national emergency alongside Instructor Yuan, they had been awarded highly, and the message behind it was clear enough. Her students were to keep quiet on the matter and let Grandma Yuan earn the glory too, as that was how the JODE upper management was to handle it. While it had been all over the news for the weeks prior to Chinese New Year, only those who were really in the know knew about what had truly happened and how close the country had been to meeting its end.
The dinner preparations were rather peaceful, and Claire had stayed for a bit, but not long after the greetings. She had excused herself, citing that she was utterly exhausted helping Jin and Yun with the proposals. (It also conveniently allowed her to leave this awkward situation). The System had teleported its newest (and currently favourite) addition into the Dungeon Maker for a very, very short nap.
She got to use the very same sleeping pod Jin had used but on the lowest setting in order to not to damage her body through time magic. (Unlike the System who had total control of User, the Sub System modules do not offer sufficient resistance against the side effects of time magic.) Once she had recovered enough from the fatigue of preparing the documents Yun needed, she returned, and Claire had to rub her eyes to check if she was not still dreaming.
Lynn’s unique steamboat broth had somehow successfully managed to unite everyone. In fact, the cook appeared more than happy to explain how all the ingredients had been specially curated just for today.
Unlike the day before, where Jin and others had a mini steaming pot in front of them, all of them now shared a large wide pot in the middle of a round table. In addition, the broth had been separated into spicy and non-spicy.
This was to accommodate Grandma Yuan, even though she insisted that she would have been okay eating a bit of spicy stuff. As the dinner passed and stomachs were partially filled, Jin finally brought up the issue of the advanced training centres and asked his employees in-depth about the reports they had handed him.
They were pleasantly surprised that he was able to remember even minor details of their reports though, in actual fact, he just read them thoroughly for the first time while waiting for their arrival.
“I see, but there does not seem to be anything special about your version of the advanced training centre? I thought there would be more… I don’t know advanced facilities?” Rong, the Demon Bull Cultivator, questioned as he perused the documents that Yun had made. Although Jin had made some last-minute adjustments based on the reports he read, those improvements had just been minor.
“I don’t think that is much of an issue. We should focus on where we can add value to the centre aside from equipment rather than criticising the structure of the centre. With this being a dimensional instance, it can be size adjusted to accommodate more people, right?” Su Zhen, the astute Demon Snake Cultivator, remarked.
“Yeah, with Jin being a dungeon supplier the training programme can be whatever he wants. Just imagine if he places a replica Loopa Ooofpa as one of the training dummies! I think that basically could solve most problems we encountered at the other advanced training centres.” Lian, the Demon Fox Cultivator, argued casually as she stole a bunch of meat from the spicy portion of the plate and handed some of it to Grandma Yuan with a sly smile.
“That is honestly not a very bad idea. If we can get him the data, those hordes would really make for an ideal form of stamina training and proper regulation of chi. I nearly lost my breath fighting a bunch of them.” Lein, the Qilin Cultivator, commented.
“In my opinion, fighting those monsters yet again should be worse than surviving that so-called Hell Camp,” Rong said as he stuffed a mouthful of Enokitake Mushrooms, those long thin-looking mushrooms.
“Then we can just make that be our version of Hell Camp. It could even serve as the main attraction of Jin’s Advanced Training Centre. I mean, they want us to be the best of the best training centres, so we should create it as such. ‘If you can survive our centre means, you’ll be prepared to fight a Loopa Ooofpa’ could be our slogan… or something like that.” Lian suggested that she could not help but find the Enokitake mushrooms to be delicious once soaked in the non-spicy portion of the steamboat broth.
“Hah! pretty neat slogan, Lian.” Jin praised and found it amusingly accurate. Although it might sound a bit elitist, the slogan would be perfect to act as an attraction for his dungeon instances too.
“What about the need to go through other advanced classes or lessons?” Su Zhen asked.
“Let the other advanced training centres handle that. I agree with Lian. We should get our centre to make the current Hell Camp look like a midnight stroll by the beach.” Rong now excited about how he could contribute to making a Hell Camp.
“You do know that by proposing that, we have to go through iterations of Jin’s Hell Camp to make sure it works properly right?” Su Zhen rebutted.
“As long as it makes me stronger and more useful in battle, I do not mind. I would rather stay alive surviving through hell than go through the regrets those Border Guards suffered.” Rong declared as he muttered a few inaudible words before eating another mouthful of mushrooms. Even though his heart was filled with instant guilt at that point of time, his stomach said otherwise. “Big Sis Lynn! More mushrooms please!”
“Hahaha, this is the first time I heard someone ask for more vegetables instead of meat. Sure thing!” Lynn agreed as she went to the ‘kitchen’ to take it.
“Then it is settled, you’ll have to set up a new Hell Camp worthy of its name.” Grandma Yuan decided. “But we won’t be replacing the ordinary one since that is already a trial of passage for most Demon Exorcists. Instead, we shall create one that will be open to amateur Demon Exorcists as well as the elites.”
“Won’t that be too harsh?” Lynn, who overheard it sounded concerned.
“Like what Rong had said, the times have changed. If the Banned Emperor dares to pull such a terrorist stunt against us once more, we should better be ready. Besides, in Jin’s dungeons, there is always a restart. We cannot guarantee the same in this world.” Grandma Yuan’s remark seemed to have an inkling of truth hidden within it, and everyone agreed to it.
“Heh, and now with Grandma Yuan’s name all over JODE’s organisation for killing the Loopa Ooofpa, her backing of this centre would definitely have some credibility to this hell camp,” Claire said as she felt a bit reinvigorated from eating Lynn’s food. As they always say, sufficient food and sleep are what a tired body needs. “And if you need ideas of how the Hell Camp was previously, I could give you my experience. Although they revised it every five years.”
“I swear it’s getting easier each time.” Grandma Yuan chipped in. “That is why I rather have my students not undergo that.”
“Is it really that hard?” Jin asked, not knowing how the Hell Camp feels like, and Claire gave a rough explanation of how it was during her time. She explained how there was forced regimental training and regular punishment whenever the team did not work as one.
“That sounds awfully easy compared to what we went through,” Lian remarked, and Claire chuckled a little.
“Of course. What Grandma Yuan and I had given you four is already a modified version of Hell Camp. Back then, I even dubbed it Hell Camp 2.0 but Grandma Yuan kept insisting it was still a bit too easy for you guys.” Claire said, and the rest felt a moment of despair as they reminisced what they went through.
“Very well, I will prepare a Hell Camp, eighteen levels deeper than the original one! Please give me your inputs, and I will make the amendments to our centre” Jin announced while nodding his head before banging the wooden table with his hand, and so did everyone else. (Since it is fairly inauspicious to say hell and death during the new year. Knocking on the wooden table was to avoid bad luck.)
“Perhaps they should have renamed it as Yuan’s Hell.” A certain foxy person said as he watched the group having a delightful dinner from the shadows. “Or perhaps… I should simply interfere with the Hell Camp Dungeon Instance once in a while to show them what is true hell when it is truly up. Ooo like a special guest! This will be such a fun experience for me, and my Foxes and most importantly, our participants. Hehe.” The Foxy person raised his wine cup and took a gulp before disappearing into the shadows.
