Magnus' life became somewhat stale. Filled with training, and sometimes Monique would break the stale cycle with some of her intrusions.
Gobo didn't stop her no matter what she did, and he concluded that her background must be quite incredible. Though that wasn't much of a surprise, as she was firmly seated on the top 1 seat.
Over the months, many positions shifted and some change constantly. Even the stable top 10 wasn't safe.
No.6 and No.7. The phoenix and dragon kept battling each other. When one surpassed the other, it wouldn't be weird to see their position switch in just a month.
He asked Gobo how the Academy judges the positions, but he just shrugged and said that he didn't know. The headmaster was the only person with such clearance and he wouldn't share such information with such corrupted management.
It was asking for a disaster. Later on, he noticed a subtle change though, and it was the border change around the names.
Most still had it in the original black with no changes, however some did not and had quite the colours.
"Oh that. It's the ploy of those factions coming from deeper than even the inner academy. Every top 100 student can create their faction. Although dropping out of a faction would dissolve it in a week." Gobo said, as his eyes lit up.
"Great idea Magnus. Your second mission will be a cooperative one." Gobo said and used a few gestures in the air before Magnus got his second mission.
[Congratulations on receiving a second mission!]
[The second most important part of the Academy! Socialising! Join a faction and ensure its healthy growth and environment. PS: You should gain some serious power to change the workings within a faction :) - Gobo]
Magnus read the prompt and looked around himself to find no signs of Gobo. A bit annoyed, he returned to it.
[Reward: -10 000 up to 1 000 000 000 000 000 per month] (Quadrillion btw)
[Note: High rewards are meant for the investment back into the faction to ensure its growth and higher rate of pay.]
"Hey whatchu up to?" Monique asked as she appeared next to his shoulder. With time, he got used to it and no longer even twitched.
He looked at her blankly before he nodded to himself with satisfaction.
"You are not thinking something bad, right?" Monique asked with a few octaves quieter voice as she realised that she came at the wrong time.
"I'll be counting on you. Faction leader heh." Magnus said, as he grinned and looked at her with a devious grin.
Although she was the master of annoying others. His own confidence wasn't low in that area either.
"No!" she said in a high pitch voice and disappeared.
To his surprise, she was quite the glass cannon with her will not be lasting too long. A week later, he looked at her with a grin as she was filling up some stuff in the system.
Sure enough.
[Monique has invited you into her faction]
[The greatest faction welcomes you in its ranks!]
"Is this seriously our name?" He asked before he was stopped in his tracks.
[Congratulations! You are the faction manager. You are now capable of setting up events, invites etc. with the approval of the faction leader.]
"You wanted this. So you are going to take care of this, okay? Don't worry, I will appear sometimes to confirm that you are my right-hand man, hehe~." She said and vanished from the training field.
'Better than nothing.' Magnus thought to himself and got ready to take care of this mess. While he would never admit it.
He craved some social interactions, and he was pretty sure he'd go a bit crazy if he didn't talk with Monique from time to time.
However, she wasn't as free as she seemed with her vanishing for months on end before appearing with her usual dumb smile.
Once in the faction. A couple of new features appeared to him, much to his delight and relief.
[Recruitment ability]
[Every month you can send a general invitation to any student on the campus]
[Every day you can send 10 personal invitations to all students except faction leaders.]
"Hmm, if I used the general one. I would probably not live past tomorrow..." He said to himself as he thought about Monique's popularity.
He checked the top 10 and, to his surprise. Not everyone there had a faction. Both the historian and researched probably had their own reason.
And the space giant had a big ego, no doubt. An instant out, no doubt. He sent out an invitation to both the historian and researcher and sent out a general announcement to the whole Academy.
For Chrono points, he was willing to do paperwork if it meant a lot of money. Even now, he kept discovering new types of ways to use them every day.
And with the long time since he got his first mission, his balance was almost dry. The investment was worth it, in his opinion, though.
[Status]
[Magnus _____]
[No. 2155]
The first mission was just too much of a boon for him. And each day, he combined at least one aspect of his name, which further boosted his power.
He still didn't know where he stood at the power scale when all he had was Monique as a gauge. Still, top 10 could absolutely crush him when he saw Monique dealing with him with almost the same ease as Gobo.
Or she was just a monster. Pure and simple. That would be a great PR for the faction, which wasn't bad at all.
With everything done, he was exhausted and decided to retire. Unbeknownst to him, the entire outer academy was shocked awake.
It was long thought that Monique wouldn't establish a faction. After all, the others had a head start and a lot of strong students were already in her faction.
The news not only shocked the weaker students, but also put other faction leaders on high alert. Many parts of her were just monstrous.
Just parading from time to time would be enough with her two-word name. Not to mention the other things surrounding her.
Many took their shots and even some higher ups of other factions. Some were dissolved overnight for the smallest of odds of getting into her team.
Overall, it brought life to the lifeless and strife filled campus for once. The God phoenix faction took action and suppressed any members willing to betray them with a threat.
Many other factions took this precaution as well and deterred many hot-blooded people. This worked for the top 50, with lower-ranking factions not having enough prestige to threaten others.
A sign of a divide between top 100 and top 50 factions. Some called it a qualitative change, but for top 10 it was laughable.
After all, the real changes were in top 10, as it was the real battlefield. Next morning.
Magnus checked his private invitations first. Much to his delight, both of them actually accepted.
[Time researching scientist No. 4 and Mana Origin Historian No. 5 accepted your invitation.]
He decided to meet those two before even considering the public invitations lying in his corner. Much to his despair, in his mailbox were at least 6000 unread messages.
Meeting them was quite simple, and they scheduled a meeting date. Magnus got ready and decided to drag Monique with him as a sign of respect, and her knowledge would be quite handy.
It was laughable, but his horizons were still quite small. At least compared to other students. Luckily, Monique was eating her favorite spatial honey pastry with some kind of tea in her usual spot.
"I'll take you for a lunch. Are you up to the challenge, beauty?" He said in a flirtatious voice.
She was not ready for something like that at all, and her face reddened and puffed up for a second. Magnus couldn't keep himself from laughing when he saw her flustered face, and the situation was just too novel.
Her face hardened and a few moments later, she began eating as if he didn't even exist.
"Okay, I am sorry, but, hey! I managed to interest the historian and researcher. Pleaseee come with me to see them or they probably wouldn't accept." Magnus said, and cupped his hands.
She looked him up and down and sighed in defeat.
"Ah, where are the times where you got easily flustered..." she said with a sigh and teleported him out so she could at least enjoy her lunch.
Magnus found himself at face with many hordes of wyverns as he noticed a note in his hand.
I'll be there when the meeting starts. Oh, and no need to thank me! You have to stretch your body in the morning after all~.
His face blackened as he realised that she somehow blocked the interactions for a round. Barehanded and without any gear.
It took him quite some time as he exited with his face black and teared up clothes.
"At least the restoration feels nice." He mumbled to himself as both his body and clothes returned to a pristine condition.
Few hours passed as he got ready for the meeting with the two top 10 students. The doors soon opened, and Magnus walked into a nice and quiet restaurant.
It was one both the historian and scientist recommended for a great secluded spot. He kept his outfit simple.
It resembled a white school uniform with a tinge of the Roman Empire's culture. His hair was styled short and a light perfume filled his near surroundings.
Few minutes later, a person arrived. They didn't have any kind of legs and their body was transparent.
After they looked around, they spotted Magnus.
"Hi, I am the historian. Nice to meet you." They introduced themselves as he shook his hand. The moment they touched, he could feel the urge to devour the hand.
If it weren't something for his willpower training, thanks to Monique. He might have turned into a savage right then and there.
The historian's figure eased up quite a bit, and he sat down. His form had turned into a male that looked like a replica of Magnus before he popped back into his state.
"Ah, sorry about that. A force of habit, if you want, I'll tell you about it sometime later. You can take me for a guy, though." He said and apologised.
Magnus was quite surprised and looked at him in wonder. Sometimes he would twitch and turn into another race before returning.
Perhaps a miracle now sat in front of him...
Not long after, the door opened once again and three people stepped in. They looked around, and Magnus had a foreboding feeling.
Once they spotted him. They zoomed to his place in a weird way. They didn't walk, but were already in front of him.
The three spoke in absolute unison.
"Hello, I am the researcher. This is my past, present and future." They introduced themselves as Magnus watched in awe at their perfect synchronisation.
'Maybe I shouldn't have sent an invitation.' Magnus said, as he looked at both of them. Time passed by a bit before Monique patted his shoulder.
"Haha, I told you that I'll be on time!" She said as she shook his shoulder. The shock he experienced was returned to both of them twice fold...