Ch57.Year Two starts!

So from our chat at the restaurant, I found out that the big guy's name is Grimply and he was only really interested in Magical Beasts, all he has ever wanted is to own a powerful pet of his own. I had to convince him by telling him that, with my resources, I will be able to get him a few magical beasts to tame and train for me in order to practice and that when he finds one he really loves, I will let him keep that one for himself, I had to add a few details here and had to give in to provide him with a few more Magical Beasts, adding in that if he performs well I may consider allowing him to open his own Magical Beast farm.

I also explained to him that I have a lot of knowledge regarding Magical Beasts and that he won't find anywhere or anyone that knows more than me. I added that, should he decide to join Swernoot, I will gladly provide some of this information to him, he will then have to join my clan and perform well enough to earn any more specific knowledge.

To close the deal, I told him that our academy emphasizes freedom, therefore, he will have full access to our extensive library that has information on the level of all the other Academies without any restrictions like having to go to class. I also explained that he could spend his days doing whatever he wanted and that if he joins my clan, I will give him a large meal budget every month so that he doesn't have to worry about food at all.

After that he excitedly accepted my request and although what I said is mostly true, it is going to be super exciting to see his reaction when he actually joins Swernoot, he is going to have to fight to survive, although I have a certain influence in the academy, it is not nearly large enough to prevent the 'hazing' of new students and nor would I want to. Traditions must be upheld, and it also creates character and toughens the students tremendously.

I then spent the next week scouring the tents for any random rejects to scam into joining, after the first couple days, without much more success in finding somewhat talented students, I got bored and just started aiming for anyone. I have actually started to understand the Dean right now, this is really not an easy or enjoyable process as most students with talent absolutely refuse all of my offers or think of themselves as too 'important' for Swernoot. I even lost my temper a few times and punched a couple brats 'lightly', sure they either got knocked out or started crying their eyes out, they are so weak, I mean I only broke a few bones, nothing a potion cant fix, fucking weaklings.

Anyway after Oga saw me losing my temper, instead of getting frightened, he got super excited and then started kicking the downed students and insulted them incessantly, he then started begging me to beat some more guys up so that he could use them as experimental subjects in testing some of his Alchemy products. I just sighed at this, he is truly crazy, and no I didn't allow him to do that to these potential students, beating them up is one thing, but using them to experiment could create some unnecessary troubles with the academies.

Time passed relatively quickly and the time for new students to actually join had arrived, I have spent my time mostly by attending to my various business matters, such as the deal with the Alchemy Academy that was quite successful, going so far as earning me an invitation ticket to the 'Bank Of All' which is a very valuable thing to those without a certain status, I will explain on this subject at a later time.

The rest of my time was spent sorting out a laboratory for Oga at the Academy, making sure that the current Alchemists working for me start documenting all their results so that they are ready for when Oga arrives and then I started looking for some connections in the Magical Beast trade, or even the normal beast trade, I have another idea that could rake in some cash for me, lets just hope Grimply at the very least has a decent level of talent in that field.

I am guiding the five students towards the Academy, I need to introduce them to the Dean so that he knows they are joining, I also need to make sure he knows that I stick to my promises, even though I don't really want to, for now I will only 'stay true' to those more powerful than me I guess. I walk up to the gate and see a few student idling at the front gate, they are all looking confused and lost, 'sigh, I guess the Dean has a habit of forgetting to tell the students where to meet, I should use this as an opportunity to gain a 'good image', you never know if any of these guys will be useful to me in the future.'

I then walk up to the gate and open it before turning around to all the students loitering around and say, "The Dean is probably waiting at the main square, I suggest you follow me before he has to come all the way here, he can get a little uhm … not normal when he has to actually do some work."

I immediately turn around, leading everyone to the main square of the academy, I can see some of the students following me freak out a bit as they watch all the fights happening on the way, 'hahahah I don't know if I should also join in to do some 'hazing' this year, it may be quite fun to torment the timid ones, they will have to learn how to stand up for themselves sooner or later.'

We soon arrive at the Dean as I am trying my best to ignore Oga, who is asking so many questions about the fights, broken buildings, more about why everyone besides him is stupid and asking how long the walk is going to take. As soon as I see the Dean standing in the middle of the square looking around, seemingly pondering why nobody has arrived yet, he then notices me leading everyone here and smiles widely.

I walk up to him and say, "I saw them waiting at the front gate so I thought I would help you out in bringing them here. Also as promised, these are the five new students I recruited for you."

I pointed at the five, and as soon as I did the Dean responded, "Excellent, I don't know why every year the students just wait outside the gate? I obviously give them each a key, anyway nice job! OOOOOH! I see there is a little Hobbit following you, how did you manage that?"

I quickly discussed a few things with him, finding out whether he was able to receive any extra benefits from the deal and how many Alchemists he received from that academy, I continued to talk to the Dean for a while as all the students were standing around awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do, the only exception was Oga who was running around talking to everyone and then running back to me pulling on my pants and telling me something he found exciting before running off again.

After I was finished, the Dean went ahead and did his usual speech before running away to do whatever he does all day. I then grabbed Oga by the back of his neck, lifted him up to my right shoulder and sat him down, I did this in order to prevent him from running around and wasting time. I have gotten into the habit of doing this, as this is the only method I have discovered that can somewhat control him.

After I had taken him to get everything he needed sorted out, I then took him to the Alchemy Lab that I had specifically modified and it is also where he has been incessantly begging me to take him for the last few weeks, constantly complaining that it was boring at my house, but then every Friday he would beg me for spending money to use to bet on the cage fights, truly a strange fellow.

It is finally time to get some drugs perfected, if all goes well and he is as clever as he claims to be, I will be able to finally open my nightclub in the next month or two. I need to start preparing by handing out the tickets and using the connections I have been building up to secure a large audience for the first night. I want to be able to have over a thousand people attend this event, it is going to be crazy and I can't wait!!