Chapter 263: A Debate
The team gave his glances full of doubt yet he didn't care. "In time you'll know that I'm right."
"Boss," Deno said, "it's not that we don't want to be strong. I do, and I bet others do. However, we can't see how this is happening."
"We need a plan," Rick said, "one that can be practically applied and useful to us."
"Well," Jim moved his eyes towards the only old wall here, "if you asked then this is where you'll find answers."
"The secret room?" Kro asked in more doubt, "but that needed a lot of teams to be in there just to train."
"Nope, you are wrong," Jim slowly said, "the room has more potential than that."
The team glanced at him in a different way before he added, "We have had a tough time since that expedition started. Go, rest and let's talk early in the morning."
"What about..." Ashley asked in shyness while the guys around chuckled and shook their heads before they left him with the girls.
"Let's go," Jim rounded his arms around Saga and Tina before getting upstairs and selected one of the biggest rooms in the new palace.
And the five were destined to have a very amusing and entertaining night till the early hours of the day.
Jim slept deeply tonight. When the early rays of the sun came in from the opened window, he couldn't resist the light and woke up.
'Had some fun,' the old man said in a playful tone.
Jim turned to watch the sleepy four smooth bodies in the bed before smiling and said nothing.
'What do you plan to do?' the old man asked as he went down to the bottom level.
'Nothing but redecorating the room,' Jim said before stopping in front of the wall, 'y'know, I need a lot of things to be done inside, with some secrecy.'
'So renovating the entire room to be the secret base of your team? Sounds like a good plan.'
'It is,' Jim said before taking out his medallion, "just don't disencourage me on this. I need time to renovate things inside.'
'I won't,' Jim passed through the door entering the secret realm again, 'I just hope the room will be flexible to my thoughts.'
'It will do whatever you ask,' the old man said, 'but the real question is how to hide the entrances to these rooms from others.'
"Others?" Jim entered the vast hall again and memories of what happened here flooded his mind. "What do you mean by that?"
'You know,' the old man paused, 'those masters and other teams who joined here with you before.'
"That was from the past," Jim slowly said before adding, "but this is a very good idea. I just need to prepare a facade for anytime I might have to let others in."
'That's what I was talking about,' the old man said, 'but how will you do that?'
"Yeah..." Jim crossed his arms and started to think deeply about this. He stood there for hours while his mind kept imagining and planning what the room could be.
He applied many patterns to the room, however none succeeded to get his approval. With a thought a large number of rooms and halls appeared, and with another all ceased to exist.
'You need to pick up something,' the old man said in a bored way, 'Hector and others must have arrived by now.'
Jim realized that he totally missed them while he was immersed in what he was doing. He was also hungry but he didn't decide to leave yet.
"I have to find something suited to be edited later on," he kept telling himself until after a couple more hours he finally chose a design and stuck to it.
"Well, at least this will do good as a front," he glanced all around while standing in a wide hall that was supposedly the first thing anyone coming here would find.
But this wasn't all.
The design he put started from this hall into another door that led through a long and twisted corridor before forking out.
One went up, and the other went down. However this forking point took him quite a while before he could muster it.
So anyone passing through here wouldn't notice the direction he would go through had changed. Mainly the lower corridor was meant for the rest of his team, and the upper one was meant for his own secret projects.
Like that of the warriors.
'I believe this is enough,' the old man said.
"I just lakc security measures."
'What for?' the old man asked before realizing something, 'no one can do a thing here without your approval. That's your biggest security measure.'
"I know, but..." he paused as something deep inside him kept giving alarming signals inside his mind, "it's not a big problem trying to be cautious, right?"
'Well, if you need I have some special spells to help,' the old man said.
"Spells can be countered," Jim didn't find this a good idea at all.
'Then what do you need?'
"Dunno," Jim shrugged, "I'll leave this part for later. I have to go out now."
'You should be,' the old man agreed, 'you spent long hours here and your window to summon these warriors is getting near the end.'
"Alright," Jim took out his medallion again and the moment he went outside, he found the place filled with faces he never expected.
"Couch?" he asked the moment he saw Rana's face. She stood there alongside Mark and Igory, plus more of the inner campus masters as well.
And Hector was also there, all alone.
"We need to talk, ace," Rana said with a serious face while the others gave him the impression they weren't here on a friendly visit.
"About what?" Jim tried to act cool but Igory suddenly came to him and hugged him without a reason.
"Congratulation son, I can now officially pass my glorious title to you."
"I'm sorry, not now," Mark said in a firm way, "we came here to discuss the lunatic action of summoning the warriors."
"The warriors?" Jim turned towards Hector who shook his head.
"It wasn't me."
"It doesn't matter who it was," Rana said.
"It matters," Jim stepped forward, "who came and told you that?"
"It's... me," Lan suddenly came from upstairs with his weak body and weaker personnel.
"You?" Jim was shocked to see his Actimos doing this.
"I was afraid," Lan said in deep regret, "and I'm still afraid. You don't know what those warriors are, but I do."
Lan turned around as if he was talking to space. "We all do! Anyone living in this universe will know how terrible it was to bring these warriors and how foolish to think that anyone can contain them."
"Your Actimos is right," Rana said trying to get Lan out of the picture for now, "those warriors can't be allowed to be in the academy."
Jim didn't care about that, he slowly moved towards Lan and ignored everyone else. Lan knew what he did was wrong, betraying his friend's trust and acting behind his back.
"You need to listen to us," Mark said.
"No, you need to listen to me," Jim took a deep breath before putting his hand over Lan's shoulder and whispered. "Your turn... is coming soon. This isn't over, and it won't be until I say so."
Lan's body trembled as he hurriedly said, "I was... afraid of them."
"Wrong call buddy, you shouldn't be afraid of them," Jim turned to face his masters as he added, "you should be afraid of me."
"What does that even supposed to mean?" Mark asked.
"He is dead set on doing it," Igory even laughed, "I can tell from his eyes. That crazy determination to do it no matter what."
"Igory, stop," Mark was getting impatient with Igory and his annoying attitude.
"Master Igory is right," Jim slowly said, "I won't reconsider this. It's my privilege and I will claim it."
"You shouldn't put yourself and others at risk," Rana tried to act soft with him, "not such a risk."
"They are going to be my own squad," Jim slowly said, "I will use them to fulfill my missions and responsibilities."
"This is extreme," Mark shouted, "we told you last night we got your back!"
"And what if that dean acted in bias and stopped you from coming to help?" Jim slowly asked, "what should I do if he declared a law that prevents you from setting a single foot outside the perimeters of the academy?"
"He won't do that," Rana tried to act like the sound of reason, "he won't impersonate all of the masters here."
"He can do it," Igory suddenly said, "ask me about it. I know how damned that old dragon is."
"Igory..." Mark's low tone wasn't that calm or soft at all. Igory looked at him before shrugging as if he didn't have a thing to do with what he just said.
"I won't hang my future or life over this week hope," Jim firmly said, "I have only small window before I couldn't summon them anymore. I won't miss it."