The Messenger of Death

After listening to Gustavo speak, Alex felt the urge to dismiss what he said because he hoped that it wasn't so. What he said sounded like something some people might make up just so they could get attention.

But then again, Alex thought for a second; 'What if it was true and not a rumor? Then Camron, the Avanti family might be in big trouble.

"Is this all that you know?" Alex asked.

Gustavo could hear the mistrust in the way Alex spoke. "At the moment, yeah, that is all that I know."

"Why didn't you say anything about this since?!" Katherine became annoyed.

"Because I wasn't sure about the authenticity of the information. I mean there are other children of wealthy people that stem from the capital that is still in the academy. If there was trouble, not only the Avanti siblings will be absent from school." He explained.

Everyone knew that organizations like the academy wouldn't get involved in worldly affairs, so when there was trouble at home, it was normal for the spouses to be called back home.

"That's true, Duna is still in the academy," Drake mentioned.

"How accurate do you think this information is?" Alex interjected.

"From my point of view, it should at most be 30% or so," Gustavo replied.

"Before we get a mission and leave the school, I want you to find out more about this matter from the little birdie of yours. You have 6 hours." Alex ordered.

Gustavo didn't exactly feel nice being ordered around, but then again, he wanted to get on Alex's good side. So he had to do this, even if he wasn't going to find anything out, he was going to make an attempt.

"Okay then, I will see what I can do, but I'm not making any promises." He swallowed his discomfort as he replied.

['At least the stalker might have some use.'] Al commented.

['Ooh, so he speaks, wonders shall never end.'] Alex mocked.

This mockery silenced Al. Alex just made it harder for him to speak or contribute to the conversation that they were having.

['Alex, why did you do that? Now he's not going to speak for a while.'] Lex complained.

['Perhaps that will be for the best.'] Alex dismissed Lex and returned his attention to his teammates.

"So, what have you guys been up to while I've been away?" Alex questioned.

"Nothing much, we joined the selection competition but we couldn't make it to the qualifiers," Drake answered.

Him saying this reminded the rest of the depressed state that they entered after they lost during the competition.

"If only you and Camron were present, even if we wouldn't have made it to the top, we would have qualified and wouldn't have to worry about gathering a lot of Merit points now." Emma lamented.

They were sad but what had happened couldn't be reversed, so all they could do was to accept their fates.

"How far did you guys get?" Alex got curious. He doesn't know how much his teammates have grown in this month that they have been apart, but if they had been training and practicing rigorously, they should have been able to surpass their previous limits.

Most especially Emma and Adrian, having a little control over their special elemental abilities meant a big boost in their strength.

"With much struggle and limitations, we made it to the 131st position." Adrian relayed.

"131st position, that's 81 positions away from the cutoff," Alex exclaimed in amazement. His team went past thousands of teams in the academy and made it there without his help or Camron's help.

"You guys must have gotten stronger," Immediately, without caring about etiquettes, Alex used his consciousness to probe their cultivation levels.

Suddenly, Adrian, Emma, Drake, And Katherine felt Alex's consciousness invade their cores.

"Heyy!!" Drake shouted, he was a little bit offended by that but Alex didn't care.

The rest didn't react to his rude action, they all knew that Alex was a rude person by default. What mattered was that he meant no harm to them.

"Huh? Your cultivation hasn't moved from the ranks that you were in before I left." Alex furrowed his brows.

"We are not as ridiculous as you. You breakthrough like you taking a shit, it is too easy for you." Drake mentioned. He had forgotten that Alex needed twice as much QI than the average cultivator did when trying to increase his cultivation prowess.

Nonetheless, Alex ignored what he said. He out of all of them knew that this was only possible due to the fact that he went to the ordain plain realm and also because he possessed a matured Midas petal.

"Then how did the 4 of you guys make it that far into the competition?" He questioned.

He had completely forgotten about Gustavo again.

"Well, we'll have to thank Adrian, Emma, and Gustavo for that," Drake mentioned proudly.

Alex arched one of his brows, "Gustavo? What in the world did he do that made his contribution higher than yours, 2 disaster realm cultivators?" Alex could understand Adrian and Emma's contribution to the team.

They possessed OP abilities, but he couldn't understand how a rank-9 nascent realm cultivator was able to outdo two, rank-2 disaster realm cultivators.

"Yeah, didn't you know about his crazy ability before you recruited him to the team?" Drake replied.

Alex tried to recall what Gustavo had told him before he agreed to let him join the team. ['Gustavo said that his body constitution was special. He only faced bottlenecks at the crossroad of one major cultivation realm to another.'] Lex reminded.

['Yeah, I recall, but what I'm trying to get out of it, is how it enabled him to contribute more than Drake and Katherine. They might not be as strong as Emma and Drake, however, they are quite capable.'] Alex said.

Seeing the way Alex's brows furrowed, Drake figured out that he didn't know about Gustavo's ability. "You really don't know?" Drake voiced his thoughts out.

"Gustavo has a special constitution, his body is immune to elemental attacks… to a certain extent.

The elemental attacks that came from nascent and disaster realm cultivators were all blocked by him. He became our durable meat shield.

While he did that, Adrian used sound to travel, reaching and disabling the opponents before they knew what was happening.

Emma supported everyone with limitless pure QI." Katherine interjected, ruining the grand/exaggerated presentation that Drake wanted to make.

['Wow, seems like they have gotten better at controlling their abilities. This is good.'] Alex thought.

"You just had to ruin things for me," Drake scoffed.

"You are welcome," Katherine uttered as she flashed a wicked smirk at Drake.

She continued; "While Adrian was the heavy hitter of the team, I and earthworm over there supported him frequently to reduce the workload." She pointed at Drake when she said earthworm.

"Did anyone figure out that the two of you possess an affinity with rare elements?"

"No, the majority believe that we obtained amazing martial skills in an excavation with you," Emma responded. "We didn't care to tell people the truth."

"Good." Alex nodded, satisfied with the way things played out. 

"If I am an earthworm then you are a brainless fish." He retorted.

"I dare you to say that when I'm right in front of you." Katherine dared as she started to make her way to where Drake was standing.

Emma quickly caught her hand and halted her, and as she did so Emma sighed.

"These couples are relentless," Adrian whispered.

"Shut up Adrian, I'd rather be paired with a frog than looked at her that way for a second."

"Why you!!"

Katherine bellowed. She tried to wriggle her hand out of Emma's grip, but her attempt wasn't successful no matter how much she tried.

Although she and Emma were in the same cultivation realm, Emma is a rank-3 disaster realm cultivator while she is a rank-2.

"Pfft!" Alex began laughing wholeheartedly, he had missed the silly antics of his teammates. "You guys are just as ridiculous as ever." He mentioned in between his laughter.

Alex did something unexpected, he patted the angry Katherine on her head, subsequently calming her down.

"…"

Katherine looked at Alex, forgetting all about the annoying Drake. "You just touched my head." She muttered before she began blushing furiously.

"Aii, the lover girl has returned now that you are back," Drake commented when he saw this. He felt the sting of jealousy strike his heart. "Easy target." He added and turned his attention away from the blushing Katherine.

"Before Gustavo returns, let us go and get a mission to complete," Alex stated as he made his way towards the exit of the suite…

…

By the time Alex's team arrived in front of the mission board, they realized that they were already too late. There were no missions available on the board.

In fact, there were barely any people around the place. Only the staff that was assigned to the part of the school remained.

Alex saw that there were quite a lot of people looking their way. At first, he thought that it was because he was wearing a black badge, then, later on, he figured out that it wasn't so. They were looking at Emma and Adrian.

Alex was still unaware of the fame and reputation his teammates had garnered while he was away. Adrian alone has been getting invites from other teams for him to dump his current team and join theirs.

They tried everything they could to make him accept, even offering to provide him with more than his current team was capable of giving.

Despite their efforts, Adrian rejected them. He had already pledged his loyalty to Alex and he planned on staying loyal till the end.

Even if he hasn't pledged his loyalty, Adrian knew that it would be foolish to leave the seraphim team. Only they had a glimpse of what Alex was capable of…