CHAPTER 71: LAUGHING STOCK

"Five missions, that’s fair," Enzo muttered under his breath, "but nothing that involves an exalted weaver."

Enzo added.

It wouldn’t make sense if they fought against things equally powerful just to get him to help them. That was just poor negotiation skills.

"Good, then prepare. The first one is in three days." Sword Cleaver reclined his body, sitting straight on the couch.

Enzo and Zeke looked at each other for a brief moment after hearing that, then nodded. In three days, they would start paying for Sword Cleaver’s services.

Later that day on Yari, Enzo and Zeke made their way out of the city and toward the Weavetech hangars they had come through, sending them back to Earth in an instant.

They had come to scout Astoria, but what Sword Cleaver had explained to them made them understand why this was a bad idea.

One couldn’t just explore the Astoria settlement; one had to go there with a solid plan and objective, because entering that settlement was the same as entering the belly of a beast.

"At least we got a map."

As they moved past the hangar in the institute, Enzo held a physical map in his hand, slowly understanding its layout.

This map was personally crafted by Sword Cleaver from his dealings with Astoria and the thieves guild. Clearly, this Sword Cleaver was not a righteous man himself.

"Yeah," Zeke muttered, looking through the side of his eyes.

"Enzo, five o’clock." Zeke suddenly alerted Enzo with a gentle tap on the shoulder, forcing him to stop moving.

From the side, a team of ten individuals, all wearing white and being led by a young lady with white hair, slowly jogged past them and took a beeline to the hangars.

As they moved past them, the leader cast Enzo a casual glance filled with an indescribable malice.

"She still remembers our faces, huh?" Enzo smiled bitterly.

Well, yes, of course she remembered. Enzo had proceeded to see House Snowfall on the entrance day to talk about his future with them, but he had completely reneged on his words.

"Of course she does, probably wants to swallow you and spit you out," Zeke mocked.

"As if you’re not in the same position?"

"Hehe, I didn’t receive an invitation; that’s all on you, man."

The two of them bantered as they slowly approached the living area, where they noticed Raven and the rest seated at a table far to the side.

"Hey, what’s going on?" Enzo and Zeke approached and questioned, seeing the mood looking sour in the group.

"You guys tricked us..." Zhou spat out, a look of indignation in his eyes. He didn’t even look up at them at this point.

To be fair, they didn’t actually trick them; everything was laid bare before them. But they just didn’t know how hard what they were getting into was.

"Huh?" Zeke was a bit confused. Well, yes, he felt like he tricked them. After all, there was no third year involved, but that was information only himself, Enzo, and Raven knew of.

"Read this." Suddenly, Raven passed over a piece of paper to Enzo, causing his gaze to wander onto its contents.

It read:

[Newbie group mistakenly picks the Astoria mission as their project. Failure incoming? Being kicked out in their first year—that will be a laugh. Laugh? They’d be lucky if they don’t end up dead.]

A voice connected to his HUD, playing the content of a podcast in the school channels. Apparently, the Astoria mission was such bad luck that almost nobody picked it every year.

Not only was it impossible to complete, people had died on several occasions trying to do so. It was the equivalent of choosing to milk a dragon over a cow just to quench your taste.

"Ohh, is that it?" Zeke smiled bitterly, looking at the gloom on the faces of the two.

These guys weren’t filled in on the plan, so it made sense they felt this way upon reading the news. No one wanted to fail.

Hearing Zeke’s lackluster response, the two frowned even deeper. Did he think this was a game? This was their life, their future—they couldn’t waste it on some experimental mission.

"Guys, a year three student picked this mission. Do you know how confident you need to be to place your future on the line in the final months of your evaluation?" Zeke asked with a look of the obvious.

His lie was foolproof. A year three would never risk his future pursuing an impossible task—that would be three years being fed to the dogs. He was more cautious than even them.

"When we are done with this project, they’ll beg us for pointers. Just contribute your best," Enzo added, supporting the lie.

Truth was, they were still very confident of their chances of success. Both of them had gone through hell before—what was going through it again? They did not fear hardship.

"Let’s forget about this for now. Mira, what was taught in today’s combat class? I’ll be joining in tomorrow." Enzo took a seat on the chair, changing the topic to something more productive.

Results—that was all that mattered. But Enzo also understood the importance of taking steps one after the other. Learning was very important for what was to come.

So in these three days, he would learn as much as he could to better help Sword Cleaver in his mission.

The next day, all five of them went to their various classes, learning what they could in the daytime and using their free time to plan.

They didn’t leave Zhou and Mira in the dark too much; they showed them their plans, the map of Astoria, and even filled them in on their responsibilities.

For example, Zhou and Mira would need to raise 100 years of lifespan together to help fund some of the planning. This wasn’t done without transparency, though, as Enzo and Zeke immediately pledged 150 years.

This was on top of their missions with Sword Cleaver, but the two didn’t need to know that yet.

On the third day, Enzo, Zeke, and Raven made their way to the hangar and entered high-grade weavepods, weaving to planet Yari.