You what?" Kaden yelled.
"I got you ten more students for them to train under you," Riven said with a smile. Their mother was upstairs asleep, so she didn't hear what was going on.
"Riven, when you say students, you don't mean you want me to teach them?"
"No, no, not teach them. They already know how to use resonance," the boy said confidently.
"How?" Kaden asked.
"I taught them over the phone, and they were able to teach themselves even without me doing that thing that you did for me."
"Riven, why would you do this? Do you know how much danger you are putting the family in? If they find out more people know about this power, let alone students, do you not think they will come for us for teaching them? Or come after their families for them knowing about it?" Kaden said, angry.
"Luckily, we can be protected by their own family. Two of them are from big families that have a branch in the Academy and the Evolaris. They'll be able to protect us if things go south," Riven was lying. He knew they had no way to protect them, but maybe if that group saw people as big as the Voss and Fallow clans, they would back off, thinking they were under their protection.
"OK, fine, I have now two final questions. One, where will I train them? This house is not big enough for twelve kids."
"Well, that's exactly why I was wondering if you could order a type of training hall that we could build in the backyard as a family before they arrive."
"And how would this not get your mother suspicious?" Kaden asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Easy. Just say one of them bought it, and you didn't build it with me for this special occasion, and say it was a gift for you training them. See? Easy Peezy."
"OK, and now my second concern—how are they going to get here?"
"They have their own ways. We discussed it already. Heck, some of them even live inside of our wall, so it wouldn't be that hard. All they need is their credentials, and everything should be set."
"And their parents?"
"Most of them don't really have a good relationship with their parents, which is why some of them are coming here in the first place." Riven shrugged.
"Fine, but—" Kaden was cut off by Jordan.
"Hey, Riven, you're getting a call!" Jordan yelled out, with Riven running up the stairs, not wanting to be in this conversation anymore.
"This is so stupid but intriguing at the same time. If these friends of his really are true friends, they'll keep him alive, which is all I can ask for," Kaden said as he walked out the front door to see where he could buy this training hall.
"Nice job of getting me out of that conversation," Riven commended.
"What? No, you got an actual call," Jordan responded back.
"No one should have my number but you, Mom, and Dad."
"It's not your phone that's ringing." Jordan then went through some of their old clothes. There he found one of Riven's pants which was buzzing up and down. Jordan went through the pockets and grabbed the phone, giving it to his brother, who answered.
"Hello," Riven said nervously.
"Hello there, it's me, Phineas—you know, the leader of the Storm Guild."
"Yeah, I know who you are. What's up?"
"Oh, I just wanted to talk, you know, get to really know you."
"One, I'm a minor, so all of the things you just said sounded really weird. Two, we both know you only contact when you're in need of something, so spill it."
"Alright, fine, fine. The items you gave us were incredibly helpful, but we realized we need more than just that. So, I'm getting one of my associates to come and give you a big sum of units, and I want you to—"
"Mass produce items and weapons. Just hurry this up," Riven was annoyed at being an errand boy.
"Good, so now is a good time as any, so—" the two then heard a knock at their window, with a person holding out what seemed to be a card, but it looked see-through.
"You get that while I'm on the phone," Riven signaled in order to Jordan, as he still had some things to say on the phone. "Quick question: if you realize you don't really need more items, weapons, and such, why are you asking for more weapons and items?" Riven questioned the man.
"You'll realize in the coming days," Phineas responded back.
"OK, fine, and another thing—I need more than just being a part of your guild as a way of payment. It seems like I'm doing more than most of the guild members, meaning I feel I should be getting more than others."
"Not only are you part of my guild, I also am keeping your secret of being able to do these types of things," Phineas said confidently.
"No, that's not good enough. One, they'll never believe you, and two, you need me more than I need you. If you want to be the new great family, then I want more."
"Fine, we can get a monthly salary of 100,000 units. How about that?"
"No—weekly. Either that, or this will be the last batch you'll ever get."
Phineas knew that after this batch, they would be able to gain enormous profit from it, but he knew losing Riven this early would be a huge loss, so he had no choice. "Yes, weekly then."
"Good, and one last thing—I want me, my family, and friends to have complete protection under the Storm Guild and whatever their family name will be. If you do that, then all's well that ends well."
Phineas was silent at the boy's proposal, but he felt like it was more doable than when he first asked for it. "Deal. Now get to making my weapons, little brat." He then hung up the call. "When did he get such a backbone?"
Jordan then brought Riven the virtual card, with him then using it and converting all of it into system points. He was shocked at the big number and had his eyes wide open in distress.
"What—what is it?" Jordan questioned, not being able to see his brother's personal system.
"I can show you," Jordy replied, also being shocked at the big number. A screen then popped up in front of Jordan's face, where his jaw almost dropped to the floor at the number displayed.
"100—100 million," Jordan yelled in his mind. "We never had this much before! The max we've ever gotten was one million, and even then, that was spent in like a week! This is an entirely different matter—this is insane!"
"I can't hold back on them; they're expecting bountiful rewards from giving me this many units, so I'll spend most of it—all but most," Riven smirked. He first brought tons of rings, laying them out on the ground, then buying tons of items and placing them inside of the rings. "Jeez, this is gonna take me forever," Riven thought.
"I can help," Jordy said, as Riven's screen popped up in front of Jordan once again, but this time the boy could actually interact with it, helping make the process go faster. Riven was in charge of putting weapons and armor in them. He mainly put the Vorrak armor in them but at different levels each, just so they wouldn't think it was that rare, while Jordan was on item duty. Thanks to the rework, some potions were removed—the two-times XP and two-times strength and energy potions were removed. Both of the awakening potions were still there, while new ones were added.
[System: Iron Skin Potion — This potion allows the user to have a 20% reduction to physical damage. Time limit before expiration: 10 minutes.]
[System: Resistance Potion — This potion allows the user to have a resistance to poison and some elemental damage by 10%. Time limit before expiration: 5 minutes.]
[System: Silent Footsteps — This allows the user to have footsteps as quiet as a mouse, allowing you to sneak up on enemies. Note: If the opponent has good awareness, they will be able to detect the user. Time limit before expiration: 3 minutes.]
[System: Rejuvenation Elixir — This potion rebuilds a person's health and stamina over the time of 1 minute.]
There were more, but Jordan just started to throw in mainly awakening potions after a certain point.
After two hours, the duo was finally done. What was originally 100 million then became 10 million. Riven wanted to save a little percentage of the system points for himself, just in case. They both then gave the person the rings. They gave him so much he had to get a bag to hold all of them, and even then it filled the bag to the brim. But before he left, he held out his card once more and swiped it over Riven's phone. When he did, the boy could see 100,000 units in his account that he was able to set up thanks to Wren. As the man then took off,
the boys fell on their bed exhausted. They could feel their hands cramping as they both decided to take a nap so they could have energy for what was to come when the sun rose.