A week passed after William had summoned his two Familiars, Elliot, and Conan.
Chloee had taught him everything she knew about Familiars, while Celeste answered most of his questions. After a week, the beautiful Elf had decided to return to Hestia Academy and continue her duties as a professor.
"Will, I will be waiting for you at Hestia Academy this year," Chloee said as she placed her hands on her waist. "Finish everything that you need to do and enroll there. As my Disciple, you needed to become strong so you wouldn't make me look bad, do you understand?"
William wanted to roll his eyes at the audacious statement of his Sixth Master. Even so, he had to admit that he learned a lot from their visit and nodded his head in agreement.
"I will come as soon as I can, Sixth Master," William replied. "However, my visit will have to wait until the Founding Ceremony of the Misty Sect. I still have some business to finish there."
Chloee nodded her head in understanding. William had already told her that he had an agreement with his Ex-Fiance that would take place at one of the most influential Sects in the Central Continent.
Because of this, she didn't say anything anymore and simply reminded him to tie up all his loose ends and head to the academy as soon as he could.
"I will miss you. Wait for me in the Academy, okay?" Elliot said softly as he held Chloee's hand. "Promise to think of me always, yes?"
"O-Okay," Chloee stuttered. She really didn't really know how to handle Elliot's eloquent skills and found herself lost for words whenever he was around.
Not far from the two familiars, Claire was holding Conan's hand, and the latter was sweating buckets, due to how close she was to him.
"Don't think too much of me while I am away, okay?" Claire smiled.
"Why would I think of you?" Conan replied casually. "In fact, I am quite happy that you'll be going away soon."
Conan had replied without thinking things through, and Claire's reply made him regret the words that escaped his lips.
Two resounding cracking sounds reached William's ears, followed by Conan's scream. Claire had broken both of Conan's hands, and was smiling sweetly at him.
"Um? Did you just say that you'll be happy with me going away?" Claire asked.
"Of course not! Wuwuwuwu! I'm crying at the thought of you leaving me," Conan replied as he cried like a little girl. "I will miss you. There, I said it. Can you please heal my hand now? Wuwuwuwu!"
He wanted to escape, but Claire's firm hold on his hands prevented him from flying towards William and using him as a shield against her.
William looked at this scene with a disgusted face. Clearly, he didn't like Conan being submissive to the little Familiar in front of him.
'I guess I'll have to ask Elliot to teach Conan how to deal with the girls,' William thought. He refused to acknowledge that Conan's henpecked attitude belonged to him.
Celeste had told him that the Familiar's attitude, and character, depended on their Master when they were created. Since Conan had this submissive trait, it meant that William also had it. A trait which the Half-Elf dismissed completely.
"We will now be taking our leave," Celeste said as she approached William. "Be wary of the Families that have been stripped of their rights. They will not take this lying down and they will definitely do something to regain what they have lost.
They might even go to the Southern Continent and find trouble with the people important to you. Although they are no longer part of the Ruling Families. The treasures and military might that they had accumulated through the years are nothing to scoff at."
William nodded his head. "I understand."
He already knew that these Families wouldn't be backing down anytime soon. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough manpower to deal with them at the moment. For now, he decided to just retain the previous floors just as they were and let the trials proceed as they were meant to be.
There were plenty of resources to be mined from each of the floors under his wing, but he had no time to do that. He was still in the middle of thinking of a solution on how to maximize the profits he had gained in the tower.
There was also the issue with the tokens he had accumulated from finishing the trials and clearing the 51st Floor.
"If things really get out of hand, just come to Hestia Academy," Celeste commented. "I will put you under my protection. Those Families will not dare reach their scrubby hands inside the academy or else they will suffer the wrath of our Guardian Deity."
William's interest was piqued by the mention of the Guardian Deity of Hestia Academy. He wondered what kind of God watched over this institution that was named after the world of Hestia.
A few minutes later, Celeste, Chloee, and Claire, disappeared from the Floor of Asgard and returned to the base of the tower. They couldn't stay away from the Academy for a long time because Celeste was a professor, and she had already been gone for a long period of time.
After their guests had left, William took out a few Beast Cores from his storage ring and immediately upgraded the Familiamancer Job Class.
While the Half-Elf was busy leveling the skills in the Familiamancer Skill Tree, James had finally arrived at the Central Continent along with Ezio.
"It has been many years since we've been here, Vlad," James said with nostalgia. "The last time we came here, we made a killing. Such happy times."
The Giant Dread Lord snorted. James had repeatedly ransacked the treasury of the Kingdoms in the Central Continent, which made several kingdoms very angry. All of them united under one banner and pooled their military might to hunt the old bastard until he had no choice but to run away with his tail behind his legs.
If not for the fact that Vlad was there, the old coot might have already been beaten to death by the angry members of the Royal Family, whose wealth was still with him even to this day.
"Are we going to head straight to the Tower?" Vlad asked. "If I use my full speed, we can arrive there in three days."
James rubbed his chin and nodded his head in affirmation. "We need to hurry. I'm sure that my grandson is having a hard time holding down the fort. I can't let those ruling families regain what they have lost. Just thinking of those countless Tower Tokens is already making my hands itchy."
Vlad shook his head helplessly. Sometimes he wondered if being James' close friend was a good thing or not. Everytime they were together, they would often get into trouble. Although he was a Demigod, he was not the only Demigod in the Central Continent.
Vlad alone could handle two of them at once, but if a third and fourth Demigod joined the fray, he would have no choice but to flee, dragging the old coot, who loved riches, along with him.
