Rocky felt quite reassured that both Erin and Buhara had decided to join his party for the future.


    For him recruiting them now was important, because, in a few weeks from now, various adventurer groups, guilds and climber parties were sure to approach the to-be graduates of the University For Nourishment Of Young Talents, to recruit them under their fold.


    Under such circumstances, if Rocky would have waited for too long, he might have ended up losing either one, or both of his friends to other employment opportunities, and hence, he was happy with recruiting them now, although he had no idea as to who the other two members of his party might be.


    The tower of Ascension was designed in a way that one could challenge for each floor in odd group multiples.


    A party challenging a floor could be anywhere from a group of 3 to 17 people, however, always in odd multiples.


    This form held true from floor 21-59, as from floor 61 and onwards every floor was a solo-raid floor bypulsion.


    However, while a party size could be any number, it wasmon knowledge that the preferred party size was only 5 members, as throughout the history of the tower, it was always the 5 member teams that had managed to achieve the most sess.


    For Rocky, forming a trustable party was paramount, as he intended to challenge all the floors from floor21 uptil 59 with these same people, growing at a constant pace as his teammates.


    Ideally, he needed to make a party where the strength of his partyplemented each other, so they could cover for each other''s weaknesses and make the most of each other''s strength.


    Since he himself was an assault type warrior, he was bound to y the role of lead damage dealer.


    Buhara, being a battle mage, was the group''s AOE damage dealer.


    Erin was a curse magician and a support type mage, putting him in the role of backline support.


    This meant that Rocky still ideally needed a trustable ranger/ archer and a tank/pdin/guardian, to form the best party synergy.


    However, more important than the ss of the warrior joining him, was the personality, as Rocky was much more keen on adding a warrior to his party who was loyal, rather than a stronger warrior who could stab him and the others in the back.


    After his tier 1 promotion, Rocky could finally see a clear path to his future, as future events that once seemed like distant problems, were now finally within his reach.


    To tackle these events, Rocky knew exactly what he needed to work on, as he understood his strengths and ws, and there was no question in his mind on how he needed to allocate his time in theing months to improve as a warrior.


    He had also sessfully formted an intricate strategy on how he could manipte Sophia into helping him save Riva, as for him it felt like their rtionship and the act that he was developing was reaching its natural conclusion.


    Rocky also realized the important role that Erin and Buhara yed in his future ns and realized the need to mentor them into learning skills that would help them survive the difficult war due to unfold on floor 21.


    Finally, after returning from the Origin Realm, Rocky also understood that he needed to somehow secure a meeting with dimir, as of all the Champion''s that he was aware about, only dimir seemed like an odd-ball, who could warn him about the real dangers of living the life of a Champion.


    In the next three months, Rocky knew that he was supposed to challenge a floor raid every week, climbing from floor 11 to 20 to graduate from the university, and hence he realized that his life was about to get very hectic.


    From the moment that he would step out of the university, Rocky knew that his life was going to be a maelstrom of chaos, however, he finally felt prepared for it, as in his mind every small puzzle piece was finally falling into ce.


    While the Elites prepared for the floor raid on their end, Rocky had toplete the system quest to be ced number one in his batch on his end, while also reaching floor20 so that his Strongest System finally got its much needed system update.


    "I guess there won''t be any rest for me, from now on-" Rocky murmured to himself as he began walking towards the university library, to research about the best-dual sword skills that he could learn to sharpen his fighting skills.


    ***********


    ( Meanwhile Principal Liam )


    "You have to resign Liam, you have to resign and retreat to an isted ce until you regain control of your mind-" Professor Maven requested, as he confronted Liam about his deteriorating mental state.


    "It''s not my fault Maven….. it''s those damn Olympians, how dare they send three assassin''s to MY UNIVERSITY? thinking I wouldn''t find out?


    I need to destroy them….. I need to destroy them all-" Maven said, his insanity evident through his voice, which sounded like a human for most part, but turned into the raspy voice of an undead Lich at times.


    "Admitting Rocky and Sophia to this university was a bad idea. You clearly can''t handle the stress those two children bring.


    Have you even looked at yourself today Liam? You look like a rotting corpse more than a dignified principal and your killing intent was leaking around students.


    2 students are in the infirmary because of you, passed out cold under your pressure while one shat himself-


    You''re no longer safe to be around children Liam" Maven said, as Liam clutched his hands and banged his desk in anger.


    Over the past four weeks, there had been constant infiltration attempts into the university via Olympian spies, as Liam was forced to use the seed of death and deal with them time and time again.


    Unfortunately, this was taking an immense toll on his mind and body, as his insanity was only growing stronger after each prolonged use of the artifact, making Liam a threat to be around children anymore.


    "Let me finish this semester Maven…. I''ll temporarily resign before the next one, but I must see this semester through to the end.


    There are still topics I haven''t taught those kids. Topics that they need to survive in the tower-" Liam said, as his eyes seemed dazed and unfocused, making Maven feel extreme pity for his long time friend.


    It was clear that Liam loved his students more than anything in the world, however, as fate would have it, he was also a ticking time bomb who was a threat to the same students he worked so hard to protect.


    Pinching his nose, Maven thought about Liam''s proposal for a while as he wondered if he should let Liam continue or not.


    In the entire university, he was the only one who knew exactly about Liam''s condition and what triggered it and it was Liam himself who had asked Maven to banish him or put him down, if he ever became a threat to the safety of the kids, which was why Maven felt conflicted taking this decision today.


    "Fine, I''ll let you stay Liam. But if you have a single episode in the next few months of losing control, I''m banishing you at that very instant, do you understand?" Maven said, as Liam painstakingly nodded his head.


    —--------


    /// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the GT Target, good job everyone! ///