They finally finished the move with Elliot and Lance still in a disagreement. Lance wasn't so keen on Elliot creating an entire guild. He knew the boy wanted to be responsible, but he wasn't there just yet.

On the other hand, Elliot was desperate to adopt the mistreated young Adventurers all over their kingdom. He wants to take them all under his wing and treat them like how Azure Scorch treated and guided him when he was a newbie.

It was all he wanted after he saw how he impacted Viper, Florencia, and now Christina's lives. He wanted to be the hand that all the young Adventurers could take, and for him to light the path in their darkest times.

"I don't agree to it," Lance took the idea down immediately. The smile on Elliot's face fell like a meteor down to earth.

"W-What? Why?" he couldn't help but stutter. "I don't think I understand. I thought you were going to be down to it."

"Do you know how taxing it is to manage an entire guild?" Lance crossed his arms. "Are you thinking that this is just another child's play again? Elliot, we're talking about lives here. Actual lives."

"Lance, remember that I am currently teaching three students," Elliot argued. "If I could guide them, and help them, who's there to say that I can't run a guild?"

"Me," Lance spoke plainly. "I am a vice guild master and based on where you are now, you're not quite there yet, Elliot. You must know that three people and thirty are two very different numbers. It's like comparing an ant to an elephant."

"That's ridiculous," Elliot grunted. "And here I am thinking that you'd be the first person to agree with me. And you're actually not."

"I'm here to pull you back to earth when your mind gets too high up the skies, Elliot," Lance spoke. His face was stoic, and his expression held nothing but seriousness. "And right now, you're way too over your head."

Elliot was about to argue more, but he wanted to show Lance that he's capable. With a disgruntled sigh, Elliot silently left.

–

"So, apparently Lance and Elliot aren't talking to each other," Ed whispered to Hope and Connor.

They were inside Hope's room, discussing about the silence between the two. It wasn't only them that noticed, everyone had felt the intense atmosphere between the two of them.

The trio were sitting on the floor righr beside the bed, the ember lamps were turned off and only a candle lit up the small room.

"This is not good," Ed sighed. "Them arguing will affect the performance of the entire team. Connor, will you still be good for tomorrow?"

"Yes," Connor nodded. "I'm not gonna let it bother me."

"That's cool," Ed breathed out. "At least you're not affected that much by it."

"But what were they arguing about though?" Hope found himself asking. "I mean, they do argue a lot like an old married couple, but then I don't know the context of this fight."

"Basically, Elliot wants to create a new guild but Lance turned the idea down," Ed said. "But this information was relayed twice, so it might not be that accurate."

"Relayed twice?" Connor narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"It was George who told me who heard it from Ethan," Ed replied with a chuckle. "Apparently, Ethan heard their conversation because he was right behind them."

Hope laid on the floor and sighed, "What do we do now?"

"Nothing."

He immediately sat up and widened his eyes at Jameson who was sitting in front of them. "Don't do anything. A problem will fix itself if you give it enough time."

"We really need to do something about you," Ed contorted his face. "Really scary."

"I told you," Jameson stood and tapped his knees, seemingly getting rid of dirt. "All problems will fix itself. Give it time."

–

The next day came like a flash. Elliot woke up after a sleepless night. He was wondering why Lance was so keen on disagreeing with him. He wanted to help people, but it seems like Lance still see him as a kid.

"I'll show that *ss," Elliot said to himself, fully waking up. His eyes widened after seeing the notification on his Console. "Is this the final quest?"

'New quest [ Arch Mage ] available.'

Opening the notification, Elliot's eyes widened once more. The quest involved someone whom he didn't know.

[ An Arch Mage

// An Arch Mage is needed to unlock the Twilight Bless, but not all Arch Mage is able to do it. In your Inventory is a map that tracks the current Caster who possesses that ability in real time. ]

With a nod, Elliot closed his Console and went to where the cocoon was. He had the ninth brew in his hand, ready to be absorbed.

He had already let the cocoon absorb the eighth one the night before. It reached its cooldown, so he was able to do it.

Elliot kneeled in front of the cocoon and gave it the brew, taking a deep breath as he saw the notification that it was the ninth one. The last one was going to be aftet this quest today, meaning that he can hatch the cocoon by tonight.

"I will find this Arch Mage."

–

It was an unusual thing for the stadium to be silent with the loud booming voices of the hosts. It had been half an hour, but Irv and Zia were still nowhere to be seen.

"Are they even coming today?" Ed asked out loud. "Why are they late?"

"Delaying tactics," Aquarius said. "They're going to delay this event if it's the last thing they do. I bet they're going to do a one-on-one match and put Connor tomorrow."

Aquarius looked at the judges who nodded at him. With a smirk and a shaking of his head, Aquarius spoke, "I knew it."

Not a moment later, the two small floating islands hovered in the air. Zia and Irv stood on top of it, grinning and waving their hands at the crowd who had started their cheering.

"Good morning everyone!" Zia greeted. "We are so sorry for the short delay. There had been a small technical health problem within our mages, but she is okay now."

"Let's just say that the world will have another child," Irv wiggled his brows. "But, anyway, let us start this day with a bang and a surprise."

"A surprise?" Zia tilted her head and pretended to be confused. "I don't think I know something about this surprise."

"Our usual main event match will be moved to today," Irv said. "But that's not the twist, the twist is that it will not be a main event round. And it won't be a one-on-one. It will be a fight against two opponents!"

This made an erruption of talks among the crowd and the audience outside the stadium. Curious about the decision of the judges, they talked it amongst themselves.

"What will they replace tomorrow's one-on-one fights then?"

"Have they found a more interesting fight other than the one-on-ones?"

"I'm still excited about today's round. I hope my favorite guild will win."

…

The hosts nodded at the reaction of the crowd multiple times. They waited for the voices to die down before they continued.

"For today's round, Round Seven, this is the list of the matches!"

[ Battle of the Champions

- Round Seven -

Bracket A (Madeline Stall, Joyce Arda, Kyle Flemming)

Bracket B (Connor Carp, Madison Barth, Mimi Yack)

… ]

Seeing his name, Connor did not think twice about walking down the stairs and into the field. There was a large stone stage that the mages put up. The stage occupied almost half the size of the field inside the stadium, making the participating Champions gulp in fear.

The size of their ring made it clear to them that the judges want to see the fight to be all out. The crowd also thinks, and expects, for it to go this way, making it even harder for the Champions.

"I will destroy the ones in Bracket C," a short man with a typical purple caster outfit with stars on them said. His hair was white and he had a thick beard that traveled down to his feet.

"That's the bracket I'm at," Connor said to himself. "Let's see, old man."

"Alright," Zia clapped her hands once. "Now that the Champions are all downstairs, let us tell you the rules of this fight."

"This fight will consist of three teams, Brackets A, B, and C," Irv started. "For the first part, the three teams will fight the other teams untill all Champions from the opposing teams tap out."

"Tomorrow, for another round, the members of the winning bracket will fight each other," Zia continued. "It will be a heated fight, so give it your all!"

Connor took a gulp and looked at Aquarius who also had the same confused look in his face. The blue-haired man glanced at the judges who had smirks on their faces.

With a defeated sigh, Aquarius spoke, "They really have their own agenda."