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 formula held true from floor 21-59, as from floor 61 and onwards every floor was a solo-raid floor by compulsion.
However, while a party size could be any number, it was common 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 success.
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 party complemented 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 play 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/paladin/guardian, to form the best party synergy.
However, more important than the class 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.
"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.
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/// A/N - Bonus chapter for hitting the GT Target, good job everyone! ///