The Messenger of Death

"You shouldn't attack the customers that step foot into the inn. How many times do I have to tell you?" The steward shook his head after reprimanding the receptionist. It was also the steward that saved Duna from her grip.

"It's not my fault that his face looks like something that was evicted out of a pigsty for being too ugly. And his voice, it's like that of a whale giving birth. These are things that I so happen to hate, so none of it is my fault." The receptionist blatantly accused Duna.

For the second time since Duna arrived here today, he was shocked. He wondered how he looked ugly since he had been young, he had received many good compliments about his looks and he was very confident in it. And his voice, it wasn't the best but it was very much alright.

"It's never your fault." The steward muttered and sighed. "You should at least call the honored customer and ask if he would like to meet them." He suggested.

The receptionist sneered at his suggestion but did it anyway. She brought out a yellow-paper talisman with runes inscribed on it with red ink. She held it in between her index and middle finger and said;

"Link PDS 1." A second later, the paper talisman was engulfed by blue flames the size of an egg…

******

"Good day, this is the receptionist speaking to you through a short distance communication talisman, please say something if you can hear me." The four of them in the suite heard the familiar robotic tone of the receptionist from the blue flame.

"We can hear you," Camron replied.

"Alright, there is a…" She paused for a bit, restricting herself from insulting Duna some more. "Well there is an unpleasant nuisance here in the reception searching for Alex, he says that he is a member of your group."

"A he?" he shot Camron a questioning look and received a shrug him. "What is his name?" Alex questioned.

"I don't know and I don't want to know. Let me give a brief description. He has a red hair, tall kid and he's in a black uniform."

After listening to her description, there was only one person's name that popped up in their heads.

"Duna." The four of them chorused.

"No, I don't know anyone with such features."

"What!? You all literally just uttered my name, how can you pretend to not know me after giving yourselves out like that?" Duna's furious voice reached their ears through the flames.

"Shut up boy. Do you know how much a short distance communication talisman is? People like you are the reason why the academy loses a huge amount of profit every year, I should feed you to carnivorous pigs!!" The receptionist snapped at Duna as her tone changed into an aggressive one.

"I am starting to like this receptionist," Alex mentioned as he chuckled.

"But I still wonder how she got her job in the first place and why she is still able to keep it after all this while."

"Hey, I heard that." The receptionist

"Then you must have also heard the part where I said that I was starting to like you."

"Yeah, whatever." She replied nonchalantly. "Sorry for disturbing you, the honored customer. Enjoy the rest of your day." The receptionist's voice changed back to her well-practiced tone of speaking. Then next second the blue flames disappeared.

['I seriously need to learn the rules and mechanisms of rune inscription. That was absolutely amazing.'] Alex thought in excitement. One of the things that intrigued him the most is runes.

"That foolish Duna must have followed us here," Andrea mentioned.

"He probably did that." Camron concurred.

"I did plan on heading out after I was done with my tea, but now that Duna is stalking me, I'd rather not show myself outside now."

"But you still have to go out and quickly search for strong and capable members to join your group. Then head over to the secretarial office and register the name of your group." Andrea stated.

"There are already three people in my group thanks to that very unpleasant teacher. Can't the two of you join our group or you are afraid that we would drag you girls, down?" He asked with a smirk.

"We would have loved to do that but unfortunately we don't have the free will to choose a group for ourselves. You heard what Vincent said right? A black, red, or blue-uniformed student will be appointed to a group. Meaning they will choose for us."

"And will they appoint people randomly or they will favor some people?"

"I don't know how they would do it, but it would most likely be done, randomly. And here's something that he didn't mention, according to the most recent population censor of students in the academy, both freshmen and sophomores; the number is about 13,000 this session. Orange and brown badge students make up 65% of the 13,000.

In other words not every team will have a blue, red, or black badge student and some wouldn't get any students with those colors of badge. That is why you would need to hurry up and get members, at least meet the minimum requirement of 4 members." Andrea advised.

"This is a new program that the academy started this session. I heard that it was put in place to help the students grow stronger, quickly. The academy is being pressured by their past failures and disappointments from the 5-year continental competition…"

"Huh? What's that?" Alex interrupted.

"You don't know about the continental competition? It's like the biggest competition on this lower plain realm."

"No, I don't know what that is."

Andrea was a bit flabbergasted by Alex's reply.

"It is a competition held every 5 years on randomly selected continents excluding the central continent. Participants from different schools or sects, from different continents, come to the contest.

The rewards of the competition are treasures desired by many as they are provided by sponsors from the central continent. Our school hasn't won the competition in 70 years and we haven't made the top 3 in 30 years.

According to the news I got, our school is going to be the host of the upcoming competition. That's why the school is taking such extreme measures to make the students stronger."

"Why do I feel like this is a pyramid scheme? So the teachers are going to be free while the students are struggling to survive, and they still get paid." He grunted. Alex's comment got everyone in the room laughing.

"It's not a pyramid scheme, but a brilliant scheme. Every student here wants to get stronger in what they specialize in.

If you want to get stronger then you will need either Martial skills, Alchemy recipes, and manuals, or equipment to study rune inscriptions, and to acquire either of those you will need to have MPs or ECs. To get ECs and MPs you will have to go on missions, hunting, or earn them through special circumstances." Andrea explained.

"Don't get me wrong, we still need the guidance of experienced cultivators, and that you are free to always seek for. But this new program to me is a crude but effective way to help the students grow. It is better than pampering us."

"And now my plans to study runes and alchemy is going down the drain." He said dejectedly.

"You can still head to the library for that. You have a large amount of ECs, you should be able to get books and manuals about them in the library." Arabella pointed out.

"Really? Okay, Camron, you deal with the issue of getting members for our group and also with the issue of getting a name for the group…" Alex said and turned to Arabella.

"Bella, do you think you can threaten people to join our group?"

"Ah, no I can't. That's illegal." Alex sighed. "I thought so, Camron you are on your own on this."

"Why? What are you going to do?" Camron questioned. "Well I'm heading to the library, I am very much misinformed or not informed. Let's go with the two."

"But you are already a… forget it" Camron was about to spill details about Alex being an Etruscan runemaster already.

"Good. Let's get to it, chop-chop!" A grin crawled up Alex's lips.

***********

"Leave before I use you to mop the floor that you have dirtied with your fish legs." The receptionist threatened Duna.

'Fish legs? How the hell do I have fish legs? Do fishes even have legs?? This woman is just throwing random insults at me.' Duna made a mental note not to come in here again. The way he saw it now, he was a target sitting in the place, for the receptionist to take shots at.

"Okay, I'm leaving." He said quickly and left for the exit.

"And you, do you enjoy sitting on the ground? Is it comfortable? Get up." The receptionist spoke to the girl that Duna had pushed to the ground.

**********

Not long after Alex, Camron, and the two girls arrived at the reception. They saw the familiar face of the girl that was punished for laughing at Alex.

"Hey kid, you seem to have a lot of people looking for you. Famous on your first day." The receptionist said to Alex.

"Yeah, something like that," Alex responded. "Why are you also looking for me? You came to get burned?" He said to the girl he referred to as cricket.

"You stinking pervert, I came for revenge. Let's battle." The girl said.