Jason spoke to the superhumans in a calm voice.
"For those of you who won’t be able to follow us into the gate, I suggest you continue your training and try to prepare for the worst-case scenario. If even one beast manages to break through the Gate and reach Earth, you’re the only ones who will be able to stop it, so you need to give a hundred and ten percent in your training. Now then, Stella here has something that she wants to teach you, so give her your full attention."
Jason finally stood up as he said that last part, and he turned to Stella and told her to come forward. Stella gave Jason a respectful bow with a small smile, and Jason smiled back at her as he moved away from the stage and started heading out of the meeting hall. Behind him, Jason heard Stella speak up.
"Good day. My name is Stella. I am a servant of the house of Marc and the personal maid of Master Jason Marc. My master has acquired enough knowledge about the monsters within the Gate, and I have been given the important task of relaying this information to you. But first, I will be confronting an issue that I’ve had with the mages of this world for quite some time now. The vast majority of you lack even the most basic understanding of mana control, and I cannot imagine any of you surviving against the monsters in a Blue Gate unless you fine-tune this mana control. Therefore, before we go any further, I will be beating the essence of mana control into you. My master has put a lot of faith in you people, so I ask you not to disappoint my master’s expectations. For your own sake."
Crack!
Stella suddenly pulled out a whip from her spatial space and cracked it across the air, and every single superhuman there flinched from the sound of the whip breaking the sound barrier! Stella held the whip in her hands like a dominatrix instructor who was about to punish her unruly servants before she glared at the gathered superhumans.
"Let us begin."
....
"That was unexpected. Do you think it’s a good idea to leave the other superhumans behind like this?"
Cerci and Jason were standing in a large hallway outside the meeting room, and Jason was looking out from the glass wall of the hallway, towards the large pyramids on the horizon. The Monarch Guild branch in Egypt had been built in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, and they were so close to the River Nile that you could literally look out from the observation deck of the guild building and see the massive pyramids of Giza looming in the distance. They were beautiful, but Jason didn’t really have the time to appreciate them right now.
Cerci was standing beside Jason, and he waited patiently for Jason to answer the question he had asked. Jason took in a calm breath and let it out before he finally spoke.
"I actually planned to go into the Gate alone. I was being very generous when I said the SSS wouldn’t hold me back because they’re also going to be dead weight for me. But I understand that I need to raise the power level of the world quickly if we’re going to survive in the future. It’s dangerous, but any superhumans that can reach the SSS Rank in the next two weeks should be able to barely survive inside the Gate. And if they can master proper mana control as well, it’ll raise their chances a little more."
Cerci nodded as he heard Jason’s reasoning. It was true that there were dangers out there greater than anything the superhumans could handle. Gaia had been dealing with these problems, but Cerci knew that Jason wouldn’t want to use the same methods that Gaia had been using. Most of Gaia’s agents had been artificially augmented with mana-based weapons, robotic parts, and mana tank implantations that would allow them to use their superhuman powers to the very max. The agents had been experimented on because Gaia knew there were dangers out there that needed to be dealt with that the superhumans wouldn’t be able to handle themselves. Jason had actually seen these experimented superhumans, and Jason realised that even though the superhumans were very strong and many of them would give even SSS Ranks a run for their money, there was just no way those augmented superhumans could replace the regular superhumans.
The augmented superhumans had a very fast growth rate, but their power ceiling was very low, and once they hit that ceiling, there was no way for them to grow any more. But even though superhumans had a very slow growth rate, Jason knew that their power ceiling was very high and they would eventually grow stronger than the augmented superhumans! The only people Jason had seen who could do what Gaia was trying to do were the Machina, and the only reason they could do that so well was because they had the Cybertronic Gene that helped them grow stronger with each added augmentation. Humans were not built to become machines, so taking away their humanity would only make them weaker over time.
"Should I send some of my agents into the Gate with you? The Gaia agents helped your father when the Green Gate appeared ten years ago, so they could be useful."
"Not unless they’re going to act as meat shields."
Jason said this in a dismissive tone, but when Jason turned to look at Cerci, Jason could see that Cerci actually didn’t mind the idea of using the agents as meat shields! As far as Cerci was concerned, Jason’s safety was the highest priority, and if they had to sacrifice a few of their agents to make sure that Jason came back alive, then that was exactly what they would do. Jason clicked his tongue before he turned away from Cerci in irritation. Sometimes, Jason forgot exactly what sort of person Cerci is. Cerci might be working well with Jason now, but Cerci was still the sort of bastard who didn’t mind sacrificing millions out of necessity.
"I don’t need your sacrifices, Cercei. Instead, position them around the city to clear out any monster that might break out of the gate while we’re in there."
Cerci nodded when Jason said this, and Cerci decided not to bring up the fact that the only way a monster would be able to leave that Gate was if all the superhumans, including Jason, were killed. Instead, Cerci asked.
"How about that Rune you’ve been working on. The interworld travel block. Is it finished yet?"
"Not yet. There are a lot of areas we need to cover, so it’s taking a while to pour the necessary mana into all the runes. But my subordinates are working on it as we speak. It should be done within the week."
Jason could almost feel the relief that was flowing off Cerci’s body when Cerci heard that! Out of everyone on Earth, it was obvious that Cerci was the one who would benefit the most from the interworld travel block rune. Gaia had been working hard behind the scenes to predict, detect, and intercept any interworld traveller that came over to Earth, and there were times when a hostile interworld traveller would attack and kill many Gaia agents. But now that Jason was putting a restriction on all interworld travel, Cerci didn’t have to worry about people coming to Earth anymore. Cerci spoke up calmly while looking out at the pyramids in the distance.
"I’d appreciate it if you allowed Gaia to handle the management of the interworld travel sectors. It’s been our area of expertise for some time, so we have a lot of experience dealing with interworld travellers."