The black card was still between the professor’s fingers. The silver dragon emblem on its shiny surface glowed under the twilight.
For any Awakened in the country, this emblem held extraordinary value.
The Silver Dragon Guild. One of the top ten guilds in the country.
An organization that hundreds of thousands of people competed to enter every year, and in the end, only a handful were accepted.
Becoming a member of this guild was truly an honor for anyone. And it was very, very rare for them to personally recruit someone.
To become a member of this guild, one had to pass many tests. Even participating in those tests had its own difficult conditions.
And now this guild wanted to personally recruit Lian.
"This is an opportunity that not everyone gets." The professor said with a confident smile.
Lian glanced briefly at the card. While for anyone else, such a membership request would be a great honor that they would accept without a second thought.
For him, it was not the same. He then looked at the man.
"Benefits?"
The professor seemed to have been waiting for this question. But he didn’t know why, for some reason, he felt boredom in this kid’s tone.
But he just considered it a mistake. How could there be a person who would be bored by such a thing?
His smile deepened, and he continued.
"Nearly unlimited resources. The best equipment. Access to high-level instructors."
"And the possibility of entering VIP domains like Hidden Areas and special zones."
"Full guild support in all missions. Access to secret libraries. And most importantly, connections."
The man spoke for several full minutes.
With each sentence, he raised the value of his offer higher and higher. But the more he explained, the less impressed Lian became.
Resources? He didn’t need any resources to progress. With his innate skills, such things were worthless to him.
Resources were things like mana crystals and other items used to increase stats. And such things were truly worthless to him.
Equipment? He was currently completely rich. Besides, the A-rank armor Gareth had given him was still intact, and he didn’t need a new one for now.
Instructors? Most people in that guild probably couldn’t even teach him half of what he had been taught in childhood in the Vonhelm family.
Besides, his own experiences surpassed any teaching.
And connections? The last thing he wanted right now was more connections.
He had already connected with a government commander, one of the Academy’s highest professors, and even a senior black market executive.
And he preferred not to make any new friends for a while.
A few seconds of silence passed. Finally, Lian shrugged.
"I’m not interested for now."
The professor’s smile froze. For a moment, he wasn’t even sure if he had heard correctly.
"Excuse me?"
"I said I’m not interested for now."
This time it was completely clear.
The man stared at him for a few seconds, as if his brain was trying to process this answer. As if he was trying to figure out how someone could reject such an offer.
He was thinking about what his next reaction should be. Should he use force? But could he even do that at the Academy?
Should he just turn and leave? Wouldn’t that damage the guild’s reputation behind him?
In the end, he just coughed.
"If you change your mind..."
"Unlikely." Lian answered without delay.
For the first time since the conversation began, the professor truly seemed helpless. Then he put the card away and walked away with heavy steps.
"I hope I don’t have to deal with anything like this again for now." Lian muttered. But he didn’t know that the story had just begun.
While he was about to continue on his way, a message was sent to him.
A meeting request.
The sender: Titan Guild.
He closed the message.
A few seconds later, a second message arrived.
Nightfall Guild.
Then a third.
White Phoenix Guild.
Then a fourth.
Crimson Spear Guild.
And then...
The messages began to pour in. Every few minutes, a new offer. Some requested meetings. Some offered contracts.
Some were even willing to send a personal representative to the Academy.
"How did these bastards find my number?" Lian stared at the phone screen for a few minutes, then sighed.
It seemed Aldric hadn’t exaggerated.
He was still deleting the extra messages when his phone vibrated again. This time, the sender was different.
Professor Aldric.
Only one sentence was written.
"Come to my office right now."
A few minutes later, Lian was standing in front of that famous wooden door again. When he entered, even he himself paused for a moment.
On Aldric’s desk, a mountain of files was piled up.
Paper files, electronic files, tablets, reports. All stacked on top of each other.
Aldric tapped on the mountain of files without any introduction.
"This is just from this morning."
"Seriously?" Lian raised an eyebrow.
"Completely. Did you think being a professor was just eating and sleeping? Of course, I have a lot of work." Aldric said indifferently, then sat down, leaned back, and gestured for Lian to sit as well.
"I guess you’ve received a lot of requests?"
"Unfortunately... I might need to change my number."
"You still don’t understand what’s happened." The professor was silent for a few seconds, then continued.
"Before, you were a failure. And after returning from the Ruined Realm, you were just a talented student."
"Maybe one of the best in the first year. But still just a student." His gaze became heavier.
"But now?"
"Now you’re someone who saved a city. Killed hundreds of monsters. And returned from a mission everyone expected you to die in."
"And more importantly... no one knows yet where the ceiling of your abilities is."
The room fell into silence. Lian said nothing. Everything was the fault of those damn government bastards. Did they really have to release everything in such detail?
He didn’t think they would go that far. But he could understand their thoughts and goals.
They wanted people to focus on the emergence of a prodigy genius and divert attention from the content and what had really happened in the city.
But there were other ways to do that without sending the whole country after him.
Aldric continued.
"That’s why everyone wants to recruit you."
"Guilds, private organizations, probably even the government and the Federation. Great families." He paused here, then spoke the last name.
"And the Vonhelm family."
Lian frowned, because he understood from the professor’s tone that there was a problem. Aldric stared directly into his eyes.
"Your family called about an hour ago."
"My family? Why would they call the Academy?"
Aldric was silent for a few moments. It was clear he didn’t like explaining this subject either. In the end, he sighed.
"Honestly? I don’t even know how to explain it." But then he said directly.
"They asked us to expel you."
The room suddenly fell silent. Lian showed no reaction for a few seconds. But his mind started working quickly.
Expulsion? The Vonhelm family had asked for him to be expelled from the Academy?
At first glance, it seemed insane. But the more he thought about it, the more logical it became.
He had told his uncle today that he probably wouldn’t attend the ceremony. And the Vonhelm family was not the kind of people who easily accepted a negative answer.
If they wanted something... they got it. By any means necessary. And now that he had suddenly become one of the most famous talents in the country...
They were probably even less willing to let him slip out of their control than before.
But that wasn’t enough to push them this far all of a sudden.
’They’ve really found out what happened in the fallen city.’ He sighed. He knew the government couldn’t hide anything from his family.
Such a thing was impossible.
And his family, after learning what had happened, was even more inclined to reclaim him and bring him under their control.
The Vorhelm family wouldn’t go so far as to have him expelled from the academy just because of talent, just to force him to have no choice but to return to the family...
They aren’t that miserable... So there’s only one meaning!
They are fully aware of the truth of what happened in the city, and that means they are aware of the abilities he has shown, without any censorship, and that’s why they want him back
Lian slowly let out his breath. Then, for the first time, he asked a question that truly mattered to him.
"And what did you say?"