Seed of Titan

Chapter 39: The First Task



In one of the rooms at the second floor of Valiant Ventures' headquarters, Drai and his group sitting closely. Beside them, the other freshmen party were also sitting in silence with a hint of awkwardness between the members. After all, there wasn't time for mingling since right after the end of her announcement, Amelia had instructed the new members to follow their respective Division Heads for their first division meeting.

In the end, nobody else was assigned to the Ops Division except for the twelve people listed as members of the new venture parties. While waiting for the meeting to start, Drai looked around the room and felt like it was a combination of an office and a storage room. There were a few cabinets and several desks around. Various items were piled in one corner of the room, which included clothes, armors, weapons, trinkets, plants, mineral chunks of various sizes, animal parts, mechanical devices, and tomes.

Not long after, Halo and the other seniors entered the room and sat down in front of the new members.

"Sorry for the wait, guys. Once again, I'm Halo, the Head of Ops. Nice to meet you all! I hope we all get along well because teamwork is really important for the stuff we'll be doing," Halo greeted cheerfully.

"Before we talk about work, how about you guys introduce yourselves again just in case they've forgotten about you already?" Halo said as she gestured toward the other senior members.

"Sure, my face is quite forgettable after all," a tall and bald man with a low voice said, followed by some chuckles. "I'm Maxwell, Vice Head of Ops. I'm a third year of the Body Transformation Faculty. Nice to meet you."

Following Maxwell's lead, another man said smilingly, "Hi guys! I'm Enda, third year of the Combat faculty, specializing in projectile weapons."

Immediately, the senior members introduced themselves one by one.

"Hello. You can call me Aldea. I'm a third year of the Magic Faculty and I'm a healer."

"Yo! It's your big bro Rofalo here! I'm a second year beast master of the Faculty of Nature. I bet you'll love Little Pupu, my partner! Too bad he isn't allowed here…"

"Muzie. Second year. Faculty of Combat. CQC."

The successive introductions was rather interesting for Drai as the seniors appeared to have quite distinct personalities, something that he didn't notice during the prior introduction as the lighting wasn't as bright and there was too much of a crowd to pay attention to such details. The last one was particularly memorable, as she didn't seem timid like Flo but still spoke the barest minimum of words. On the other hand, Rofalo was basically her opposite and somewhat reminded Drai of his father. Meanwhile, Enda felt similar to Halo, and Aldea was an ideal representation of a healer's stereotype—calm, graceful, and amicable with a tad of motherliness.

"As you can see, we're lacking in the human resource department. You guys outnumber us by more than twice," Halo said with a rueful grin.

"Apparently so," Maxwell added. "Perhaps we can look forward to less field work in the future."

"Knowing the President, I bet he'll add more ventures instead so that nobody here has it easy," Enda refuted, shaking his head helplessly. The other members seemed to agree with him as their shoulders slightly slumped.

"Anyway, as explained previously, you are now two new venture groups under the Ops Division," Halo continued. "Although it's mentioned that some seniors will be assimilated into your group, we've decided that it's best to postpone that matter indefinitely to avoid overshadowing your own talents and skills while also focusing on your personal and team development.

"We're arguably the most flexible division in VV, so there's not many rules nor duties that we adhere to except for preparing and participating in ventures with their respective goals in mind. So, your first task is to decide a team leader, your party names, and your prospective roles as party members. Further tasks will be communicated mainly through the leaders, so the leaders are to report to me after you're finished with your current tasks.

"The seniors and I will be hanging out here or nearby, so feel free to approach any of us if you have any questions or problems. So, before you begin, does anyone have any questions?"

The girl named Irene immediately raised her hand to which Halo responded with a nod.

"Is there any rules or restrictions for the party name?" Irene asked.

"Just be mindful of its implications. Don't use profanities or other distasteful words. Other than that, there's no rules. Make it classy, mysterious, cringe, or whatever. For your reference, our main party's name is 'Smash 'n Grab'," Halo replied, looking a bit irritated upon mentioning the party name.

"What's with that name? Isn't that implying you're a bandit group?" Jian remarked perplexedly.

"Ask Bismar!" Halo suddenly erupted in frustration. "That f**ker tagged along for our first venture last year and thought that our original party name was so lame that he decided to change it on the spot! If he hadn't sulked and tried to sabotage our venture as a protest, I wouldn't in a million years use that f**king name!"

Halo's sudden outrage silenced the whole room. The new members looked totally baffled while the seniors were either smiling helplessly or sighing. Meanwhile, Jian looked rather pale and was at loss for words; he realized he had brought up quite a sensitive topic.

As she was puffing, Halo suddenly realized that the atmosphere had turned rather awkward. She took a quick glance at Jian then immediately returned to her previous demeanor.

"Ahem! In short, your President is not right in the head if you hadn't noticed already. Anyway, does anyone else have any other questions?" Halo said with a cheerful smile as if her earlier outrage had never happened. This time, Christo was the one raising his hand.

"Regarding the deciding of our prospective roles, are there any guidelines such as general party-compositions or are they totally up to us?" Christo asked.

"It's up to you. There's a recommended division of roles in a party, but I don't want them to overly influence your judgement. Please decide your prospective roles with the individual's talents and skills in mind more than a conservative party composition although it's best if they could somehow fulfill both criteria."

Halo then briefly paused in contemplation before continuing, "You should also consider how the roles contribute to your party's strengths, what shortcomings should be covered or ignored, and whether the end result will generally fare well in the field or is meant to specialize for certain types of ventures. But let me tell you beforehand that your being a specialized party doesn't mean that we will automatically exclude you from ventures outside your field of specialization.

"And feel free to assign more than one role to a person if it's necessary and possible. Having a main role and a reserve role won't hurt, especially if the person is equally capable in filling both roles. Sometimes you'll be forced to change your approach during ventures due to sudden and unforeseen circumstances or developments. So, having these options prepared beforehand is definitely better than poor improvisation.

"But do this only if it's suitable. Don't force someone to be a backup healer if they can only give CPR, words of encouragement, and nothing else. It's okay having only a single healer because then your strategy will always involve protecting the healer. Having a piss poor backup healer yet failing to protect your main healer because of it will be disastrous. So, please keep that in mind," Halo concluded.

Christo nodded appreciatingly before commencing his usual staring into the distance, most likely working his gears as he pondered upon the party composition.

Following Christo, several other people also asked some questions although none had resulted in any information as crucial as Christo's question. Halo patiently answered all of them with the occasional input of the other seniors. Eventually, nobody raised their hand anymore, signaling the end of the Q&A session.

"Since we're done with the questions, please start working on your tasks. After you're done, except for the reporting party leaders, feel free to go home or stay around. The headquarters is now open to all of you as you're now part of VV. The general rule for being here is to behave properly and avoid going into the other divisions' offices and areas unless with permission. The Ops Division only has this one office since our activities are mostly done outdoors or at the training area. Just stick to the first floor if you want to avoid trouble. Well then, see you later, first years!"

Following this, Halo and the others exited the room with a grinning Rofalo throwing a series of winks and thumbs-ups on his way out. Only Maxwell stayed and busied himself with work as he took a seat at one of the desks. Perhaps his staying behind was to quietly supervise the freshmen in case of an emergency or trouble.

The new members then gathered with their respective parties. Some of them glanced at the other group of people curiously but didn't exchange any words, only slightly nodding or smiling.

Drai's group sat in a circle with the same arrangement as the one during the previous meeting. Drai wanted to consult Christo regarding his role, but after seeing that the guy was half-lost in thoughts, he decided not to bother him.

"Have you decided your role?" Natalia asked Drai.

"Not yet. I don't really understand how parties work so I was thinking of consulting Christo about the matter," Drai answered.

Hearing this, Natalia couldn't help but glance at Christo who was still keeping his thoughts to himself.

"Why do you trust that guy so much?" Natalia asked, slightly annoyed.

"Maybe because in the short time I've known Christo, he's helped me so much," Drai said, recalling Christo's words of caution regarding his class. "Personally, I don't think he's a bad person, Natalia."

Hearing Drai's answer, Natalia became silent. She took another glance at Christo, looking a bit confused.

"Why do you seem to hate Christo? I didn't know you have a history with him," Drai said.

"History my ass. I've never even met him before this," Natalia refuted.

"Eh? Then why did you guys look familiar with each other? I thought you were acquaintances of some sort."

"It's nothing like that. I just know about his background and circumstances because of my social circle," Natalia said.

"So that's why you dislike him?"

"You can think of it like that, but it's not really that simple, Drai. Like I said before, I'll explain it to you later after this, okay? Maybe then you'll understand where I'm coming from," Natalia said half-pleading.

Drai looked at Natalia then Christo before sighingly nodded. He really didn't want his close friends to have animosity toward each other.

"Drai, why don't you introduce me to your friend?" Auri's voice suddenly interjected.

Drai turned toward Auri awkwardly, realizing that he never properly introduced Natalia.

"I'm sorry guys. This is Natalia, my classmate. Natalia, these are my friends. That's Auri from the Faculty of Magic. Jian there is a cultivator from the Faculty of Combat. Christo, well… I guess you knew him already. And Flo… what faculty are you from again?" Drai proceeded to introduce the group before realizing that he barely knew Flo.

"Oh, I'm in the Faculty of Nature," Flo quickly replied.

"Wow! You're my first friend from that faculty," Drai excitedly said. "Me and Natalia are from the Faculty of Body Transformation. Christo there is from the Faculty of Generality."

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Natalia," Natalia greeted the others with a smile. The others smiled back except for Christo who was still preoccupied with his thoughts, but Jian's expression was obviously forced. It seemed like he was still apprehensive about Natalia.

"It's interesting that our party has a representative from every faculty," Auri remarked.

"Do you think that's why the seniors put us together?" Jian conjectured.

"Maybe. But I think our interviews were also part of the consideration. I remember being asked whether I prefer field work or desk work," Auri stated.

"I don't remember being asked that," Jian said.

"Yeah, they didn't ask me about that too," Drai added.

"That's strange. I also remember that question. I remember answering that I enjoy being surrounded by nature," Flo chimed in. After being with the group for quite some time, she was looking more comfortable with conversing.

"Isn't it obvious? Ross simply didn't think it was necessary to ask you two that question," Auri said with an amused expression.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Jian asked in confusion.

"Auri is saying that it's painfully obvious you two aren't suited for desk work. Even I can immediately see that Jian prefers to run around rather than organizing data," Natalia bluntly clarified.

Hearing this, Drai and Jian looked at each other before chuckling. They silently agreed that no healthy person would think that either of them would enjoy sitting on a desk all day long.

"So, how about picking a leader first? We can start deciding our roles after that," Natalia suggested.

"Sure. But I think if we do it by voting, the leader position is already decided," Auri said.

Auri's response slightly surprised Natalia. She looked around and saw that Drai and Jian were nodding in agreement.

"Don't tell me… Christo?" Natalia inquired as her brows furrowed.

"Yep. I'm certain the three of us will choose him," Auri replied while gesturing to Drai and Jian.

"How about you, Flo?" Natalia asked.

"I-I don't know everyone here very well, and I'm definitely not choosing myself, so I'll just follow the majority," Flo replied with slight apprehension.

'Hmm... Why do these guys trust this Christo so much? Did I really misjudge him?' Natalia frowningly thought as she started doubting herself.

"See? No contest," Auri said to Natalia.

Natalia looked at Auri before nodding weakly.

"So?" Auri asked Natalia.

"So what?" Natalia asked confusedly.

"Well, do you accept the decision? Don't you have a beef with Christo?" Auri questioned.

Natalia's eyes turned to Christo. She silently stared at him for a minute before eventually saying, "It's fine. I also want to know what makes this guy so trustworthy in your eyes."

Hearing this, the others looked relieved, especially Drai and Jian.

And as if on cue, a voice suddenly chimed in.

"Then let's begin deciding the roles."

The group turned toward the voice and saw that Christo was finally done with his thing and was looking at them with his usual smile.


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