The Calm Before the Storm (III)

After Klaus got an unpleasant message, he called Sheila to pick him up and take him to the Awakener Association.

Upon arriving at the location, Klaus did not queue or wait for approval like he did beforehand. He went straight up to the 30th floor and broke through despite dozens of awakeners standing guard along the corridor.

"Hi, sir, I'm sorry, but..."

A guard fell to the floor as he tried to ask about Klaus' business to come to this special staff floor. Of course, his actions triggered the other guards.

"Hey!  What are you doing? Stop!"

Continuing to walk, Klaus ignored their warnings. Some A-Class awakeners sped up and blocked his path. Only then did Klaus stop.

"You've gone too far. Go back before someone gets hurt," the guard warned.

Klaus hissed through his teeth. "If I don't want to?"

"Someone will get hurt here."

The A-Class awakener's threat didn't faze Klaus; instead, he snickered. Suddenly, the air became cold. The guards began to struggle to breathe, and they felt the strange aura emanating from Klaus. Their instincts kicked in, and some guards let out thunder or fire from their hands.

Seeing the situation heat up, Sheila suddenly got a bad feeling. She quickly ran and turned her back on Klaus, not to protect her boss but to protect these awakeners. Her feelings told her that they would all die if she didn't intervene soon.

"I'm really sorry. My boss is not in a good mood. You know, he had a bad day, hehe." Sheila quibbled as much as she could.

"You can't excuse with that. This floor is not for the public."

Sheila represented Klaus, apologizing repeatedly to the guards and arguing that her boss was in a critical situation and needed to meet with Director Logan as soon as possible. Luckily, the guards were understanding; they let the matter go and told them to wait for a while.

The guards dispersed as one of them went to inform the director.

"Phew.  We almost got into trouble," Sheila said as she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead.

Klaus seemed to be calming down. "Thank you, Sheila. I don't know what would have happened if you weren't here today."

"Well, I think I was born for this." Sheila joked, trying to break the ice.

Clearing his mind, Klaus took a deep breath and exhaled. He had just realized he had let his emotions take over his mind, and he regretted it.

A guard approached them, informing them that Director Logan was willing to meet with them.

Klaus immediately walked into the director's office without a second thought. As he saw Logan, their eyes met as if they already knew the inside of each other's heads.

The director made a gesture to sit down, and the air became heavy instantly.

"I heard from the guards that you almost made a scene. What brings you here?" asked Logan in a stern tone.

Klaus reached into his pocket, took out a smartphone, and put it on the table. "Can you explain this? Why did you mess up our agreement?"

The gray-haired man opened his eyes wide as he saw the news article on the smartphone screen.

The director sighed and leaned back in the chair. He had a haggard look on his face. "I wanted to tell you this earlier. But believe me, I didn't want this to happen either."

There was no appropriate response that Klaus could give; he couldn't help but frown in skepticism.

Two days earlier, Logan received orders from the Washington-based Central Awakener Association to assist Noah Liebert in Manhattan. As it turned out, a new guild called Sons of Thor had been granted exclusive rights to raid the indigo and purple dungeons. Whichever was the awakeners must wait for their approval if they want to enter there.

Klaus probably wouldn't be so angry if they didn't control the purple or indigo dungeons. He felt cheated, not to mention that Logan had promised to help him.

"So the agreement we signed is dismissed?" Klaus asked through his teeth.

No answer escaped Logan. The silence was enough to tell Klaus what it meant.

"Damn it."  Klaus buried his face in his palms.

"I'm sorry, Klaus. I'll compensate you appropriately," Logan regretted.

Money wouldn't be enough to comfort him. Klaus had planned everything carefully, choosing Manhattan as the center of operations and figuring out how he would build his empire. If Klaus lost the exclusive dungeon raiding rights, everything would be pointless.

Manhattan was a place where dungeon breaks often occurred. However, few guilds operated in this borough.

Klaus tried to take advantage of the situation in Manhattan, but his efforts failed before he even tried. Noah might only have exclusive raiding rights for two dungeon levels at the moment, but it was only a matter of time before he got exclusive rights for the others.

"I don't understand," Klaus said. "I've offered you artificial arcana and made you the main customer. But what made you change your mind?" He sounded frustrated.

Logan sighed.  "You made promises to the Awakener Association, but your cousin made assurances."

"What?"

Noah offered to guard Manhattan for three years. The Awakener Association needed a protector guild because there were very few guilds in Manhattan. On top of that, he would give them 35% of the dungeon's loot. This was enough to make the Awakener Association tempted.

What Klaus was offering was indeed a wonderful thing—artificial arcana. However, they did not know how long it would take for artificial arcana to be perfected. They were also sure that Klaus would fail, considering that no organization or guild had succeeded in making arcana inventions over the past 10 years.

"Something's not right." Klaus shook his knees. "It takes resources, a lot of money, and time to create a guild capable of protecting a big city. There's no way the Awakener Association would entrust this important task to a newly formed guild."

Even Klaus had to use his grandfather's name and LR Electronic to convince them.

"This may be hard for you to believe, but your cousin builds a strong guild. He has 100 awakeners, half of whom are B-class. What's more, he has three A-class awakeners and an S-class."

"Damn it.  That's at least almost 150 million dollars for a year, and he's going to hire them for three years? Where did he get that much money from? I'm sure Liliana doesn't make that much." Klaus was getting frustrated.

Klaus was completely stuck. It didn't occur to him that Noah would have that much money. Sheila, who was sitting next to him, became equally frustrated.

The mood was really gloomy.

Tapping his fingers on the table, Logan seemed to have something on his mind that he wanted to tell Klaus.

"Actually, the Awakener Association still needs to review the agreement. You still have a chance."

Naturally, Klaus raised one eyebrow. A hope appeared.