Letting his guild join the Cult? This would serve perfectly well towards his goal to find and nourish many masters with Mystic Arts powers in his guild. Not to mention he wouldn't just join the Cult, he'd also form an alliance with them, would join the Cardinal Council as a formal member, enjoying the endless benefits from doing so.
To him, this was just a dream. And he didn't get why the Cardinals' stance changed one hundred and eighty degrees, changing from seeing him as a tool into one worthy to join them.
"What's the catch?" After thinking about this for a few minutes, which the Grand Cardinal and others kept their silence during, William realised there must be something they were desperate for, something they needed him to do.
And from such a generous offer, he expected such a task would be quite dangerous. After all the Grand Cardinal said it, they planned to establish a new division, "you do know I have zero experience or power in terms of Mystic Arts."
William expected to see signs of surprise over the faces of everyone here, yet all he got was weird calmness and silence. He didn't know that he was watching, and they heard and saw everything he was doing.
Even when the Cardinals were studying and discussing how to fortify their bases, they still kept a small number of them to watch closely what William was doing.
They wanted to not miss any chance at all to get more information from him. And yet all he did was to read through the scrolls and do nothing else.
"It's easy," the Grand Cardinal could tell how vigilant William was towards him, "we just want you to establish and handle the external affairs division in our Cult."
"External affairs? What do you want me to do exactly? Aren't you a secretive Cult or what?" William was puzzled by this and didn't know what the Grand Cardinal even meant by his words.
And soon enough he learnt everything. The Cardinals wanted to revolutionise the entire defensive infrastructure of the entire bases. And yet they knew this would bring attention no matter how hard they tried to act secretive.
Even if they selected to do it on a very long and slow timely process, a thing that wouldn't actually serve their real intentions, they'd still attract the limelight over them.
And the magical solution for all this was William and his guild. The owner of this idea was a Cardinal who went through everything Leo's legion collected about William.
The casual suggestion was warmly welcomed by everyone, especially when the Grand Cardinal showed his total support for that.
Using William's guild to do this business, handle the dealings with any construction impacts, purchase resources, and fortify the bases was just perfect.
And William could understand all the reasons behind their decision, could now get why they acted this urgent and wanted to let him be part of the Cult, even having a seat for himself.
They wanted to use this as a form of a reward and payment. They also wanted to secure any threat he'd pose to them in the future, threatening to expose them to the public if anything went wrong at some point.
"But there is a little problem you all missed," William wouldn't refuse such an offer indeed, "how am I going to justify my sudden need to build condensed forts and defences, not only in my continent, but also at the other one?"
William got their need for his guild to take the front, act as their shield and absorb any trouble coming from doing such a grand project. But there was this point which he couldn't find any solution towards.
"We already thought about this," the Grand Cardinal paused, "we heard that your team went towards the capital, aiming to join the about to start contest, right?"
William didn't find it strange for them to know such intel. After all, Leo and his legion were there when he parted ways with his friends and team. So he simply nodded, waited for what the Grand Cardinal wanted to convey.
"We'll aid you in this contest, helping you to win the first place…" the Grand Cardinal kept speaking about a grand plan, one that would stem from the upcoming contest on the continent William came from.
The plan started simply by winning the contest. William didn't know that the winner was granted a chance to enter a grander context in a few months later, one that would enrol the best ten teams from each continent in a prestigious contest to determine the best team in the entire world.
The Cult would help William to secure the first spot in both contests. They wouldn't be able to interfere or affect the results, but they could simply add fresh blood to his roster, making his odds outweigh anyone else.
When William asked about the total point of taking such trouble, entering into useless contests for him, he got to hear the main reason behind this, and a shocking reward that made him drool.
"... The winner of the final contest will be granted a title, the Prodigy Under Heaves. Such a title isn't just for show, as you can purchase any piece of land anywhere in the world and no one will stop you. The title gives its owner lots of privilege, one that includes an access to the sacred city on the top of the Giant World Axis, the ancient and mysterious place which lies in the heart of our world."
William didn't care about other privileges but this one. If he knew nothing about the pocket worlds in general, he knew one thing as a fact.
When anyone reached the pinnacle stage, he would find it hard to train. But in every world, there was a place blessed with unnatural concentrations of spirit power, one that would let anyone have their chance to reach the end of the dark gold grade limits and be ready to jump over to the higher world.
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