A middle aged man walked down a hall way with a coffee mug in his hand.
The middle aged man was dressed in a neatly pressed button down shirt paired with khaki slacks.
Although he exuded a professional demeanor, wearing polished loafers and a subtle wristwatch, his face was anything but so. It told an entirely different story.
He wore a tired expression, which seemed odd considering his professional attire, which should suggest he was just on his way to work.
So then, why was he tired? He hadn't even started work yet!
"Another boring day," the man sighed deeply, taking a sip of the coffee in his hands as his steps continued through the hall way.
The hall way was made of pristine white metal, with numerous small white lights embedded at the top at a small distance from each other, tracing down the hall.
After walking through the hall way for a few seconds, the man finally reached the end of the hall where a metallic white door stood.
With out pausing his steps, he kept walking forward, and with a quick scan by the console on the door, it soundlessly slid open.
The man sighed and closed his eyes as he stepped through the door, already fore seeing how boring the day was going to be.
Just as he was about to reluctantly announce the beginning of his shift, he suddenly heard the sounds of heated arguments resounding through out the control room.
'What the hell…' Opening his eyes, the middle aged man was shocked by what he saw.
In front of him, many operators had wide grins on their faces, each of them gathered together forming a roughly made line.
"2.5 seconds!"
"4 seconds!"
"4.5 seconds!"
Each operator, upon reaching the front of the line, would suddenly scream a random time frame and then tap the artifact on their wrist the next instant before stepping away for the next person in line to do the same.
'Doesn't this mean…' the operator knew well enough how he and his colleagues usually felt during their shifts.
Considering the majority of their time on the job was spent watching the students on the screen basically training and doing nothing, it was a no brainer that they would all have frowns on their faces every time they came to work.
No one of them loved their work, but even then they knew they had to do it. Adulthood was truly tough.
There was only one reason the operators would all be showing such excited grins on their faces.
The middle aged man swiftly turned his gaze toward the big screen in the middle of the control room, his gaze instantly landing on the figure of a blue humanoid shaped light.
The middle aged man didn't have to ask to know who that was.
There was only one 15 year old boy who would fit all the criteria that would enable them to use this feature of their cameras and also make all the operators this excited.
"Gon! You're finally here!" One of the operators in the back lines of the roughly made line suddenly exclaimed while calling out to the middle aged man.
Gon, the middle aged man, instantly made his way over to the operator who just spoke.
"Yeah, I had to take care of something at home," he responded as he got to the other operator.
"Taa! Don't forget it's me, Gon. I know you just didn't want to come to work!" The other operator remarked with a smug smile.
Gon shook his head with a smile. He was right; he really didn't want to come to work.
"What's going on?" Gon asked while gesturing to the crowd of operators gathered.
There were currently operators who should have long since finished their shift still in the control room. That fact alone was enough to show how excited they all were.
The operator's smile widened as he replied, "We're all bidding on how long it would take that monster kid to defeat the Shadow Seraphon this time around!" The operator explained.
"I see."
Gon had already guessed that this was what they were doing.
He turned his gaze back towards the screen, seeing that Atticus had already gotten to the small clearing where the mana barrier was. He was preparing to enter the caves.
Gon placed his free hand on his chin and took another sip from his coffee, pondering on something.
After a few seconds, he finally decided.
"Looks like I'd be bidding too." He turned to the operator and suddenly declared with a small smile.
"Heh, confident, aren't we? Get ready to lose your points!" The operator said as he started gradually advancing up the line.
Just like the students, any staff of the academy used academy points as their main currency for anything they wanted to buy in the academy.
And these academy points were even scarcer for the staff, as none of them had the privilege the students had of earning from each beast they killed.
This was why many of them would rush at the opportunity to easily earn more points if they got a chance. Betting was a great way to earn points and, well, also lose.
Gon simply smiled in response to his statement, not saying anything.
After less than a minute of standing in line, it was finally Gon's turn.
On reaching the front, Gon faced the operator in charge of the bidding and suddenly declared, "More than one hour."
A hushed silence immediately settled in the control room.
…
As soon as Atticus decided, he stepped in to the cavern, immediately releasing a pulse of mana from his core, revealing everything in a 50 meter radius in front of him.
Atticus kept moving through the large space, periodically releasing mana pulses.
Unlike the last time, he hadn't seen any 'boulders' on the floor. He was ready to react if he saw anything suspicious, but he hadn't seen anything so far.