I'm The supreme Fairy King

Chapter 256: The Team Is Missing Members

Jim's silence was wrongly understood by the two masters and he was quite thankful they didn't ask further about this.

He knew he sucked at this expedition, but he wasn't regretting that too much now. He got out barely with his life. One single mistake and he would be gone.

He knew that, and he also felt more appreciative to the two masters walking up front of him and others still waiting at the gate of the forest.

If not for their help, he wouldn't be walking right now or breathing the same air as them.

'Don't be discouraged,' the old man tried to console him, 'you got yourself some good things in return.'

'I know,' Jim slowly said, 'I don't regret being alive after all this.'

'Good point indeed.'

The walk didn't last long before the three of them appeared at the main gate where everything started. Jim saw many faces standing in big groups, and he didn't know most of them.

However there were few faces that he instantly recognized.

"Boss!"

"He is alive!"

"I told you, hahaha, he is a survivor!"

As he came with the two masters, many shouts appeared all of sudden while his teammates came running at him. The look of joy over their faces was priceless, something that made him feel a little warm inside.

"It seems your team missed you a lot," Mark turned to see him before suddenly adding, "I'm sorry, give him the rings and let's go."

Igory nodded and Jim stood there without a clue. Igory took one ring and gave it to him. "Hector said this is your share," he said with a wink before moving away with Mark, leaving Jim alone behind.

"My share..." Jim glanced at the ring in his hand but he didn't have the chance to examine it. The team members of his appeared next all around, forcing him to wear the ring on his finger and forget about it for now.

"Welcome back," Rick stood there with a wide smile over his face while Deno seemed not quite satisfied by words.

He simply raised Jim as he hugged him before raising him even higher and shouted:

"See this? Our mighty boss ventured alone in the forest and returned in one piece!"

His shout attracted more attention to Jim who felt weird from this action. Familiar faces all stood around him. Gorden, Ashley, Jenny, Lan, Pat, the two Twisex girls, Kro, Roo, and many others.

However he also noticed that the team was missing many. "Where are the others?" he couldn't help but ask while Deno put him on the ground.

As he asked this question, the faces all around changed.

The happy atmosphere seemed to be vaporized. "What's wrong?" he moved his eyes around before adding, "where are the rest of the team?"

Almost half of the old members of his team weren't there.

"They... fell," Rick slowly said with a deep tone filled with sorrow and regret, "after we got separated, we were hunted down relentlessly by many teams."

"They were bastards," Deno angrily shouted while moving his eyes all around like he was accusing everyone.

"But many teams helped," Kro spoke to stop the storm of anger of Deno.

"Yeah, if they didn't help we wouldn't have even returned," Rick supported Kro's words, "and that's a blessing."

"Core teams?" Jim slowly asked while moving his eyes around.

"We... had it hard back there especially during the first couple of nights," Jenny slowly said, "but thanks to other inner teams we managed to survive."

Jim understood what happened. It wasn't a smooth journey for him or his team after all. "I won't forget their sacrifice," he pledged, "one day we'll get our revenge... but not today."

The eyes of everyone got attached on him while he firmly added:

"We have to end this pathetic show then we'll have a grand meeting."

"Meeting?" Rick seemed quite surprised by his reaction.

"Won't we... cause some trouble?" Deno asked in doubt while moving his eyes around, "we know which teams double tagged against us. They are all here boss, we can take some down."

"And lose everything in return?" Jim gave him a deep glance, "we will have our moment, but it's not today."

Deno seemed not to be content with his decision and Jim himself wasn't. However after what he went through his vision of life itself changed.

Life wasn't all about venturing through it recklessly, "Life is all about achieving our goals and not die before getting them fulfilled," Jim slowly said while patting on Deno's giant body, "and taking revenge for our fallen friends is now one of these goals."

His words seemed light but strange enough they carried enough weight to impact everyone standing around him. He glanced at the gloomy faces, the sad looks they had and could only sigh.

"I... Passed through the thin border lining life and death couple of times during the past days," he slowly said while trying to give them a lesson here, "and from that I learnt it doesn't matter a sh*t if you were so brave or so foolish... what really matters is to achieve your goals while not dying while trying."

"We should at least try," Deno was still stubborn, "they got us there without a fair fight!"

"Life isn't fair," Jim simply shrugged, "also is death. I was crippled and didn't have a chance to come back, but I'm here," he pointed at him before adding:

"If you asked me what I felt back then I can frankly tell you one thing: Regret. I don't want to feel that regret again. We will take our own revenge, but on our rules and according to our game, not theirs."

Deno's face told him he didn't get what he meant yet the others around seemed to understand what he wanted to say.

"You... got changed boss," Roo slowly said.

"Facing death and crushing it gave me a new perspective about life," Jim said with a smile, "we all are going to die, then why die while being desperate? Why dying without a big smile of triumph over our faces?"

The team glanced in silence towards him while his mind was preoccupied with many scenes he got from Hector and his team. Their laughs, their mood even when everything seemed dark and desperate around was a lesson he couldn't forget.

And he wanted his team to change, to behave the same exact way Hector's team did back then.

He wanted them not to falter in front of challenges, not to feel sad or depressed by any setbacks like the one they are facing right now.

He wanted them to be fierce and relentless. If they were in despair then amidst all that darkness they had to look for that tiny silver lining that everyone would miss.

But he pledged to himself he wouldn't miss that light no matter what.

"Now it's our top priority to excel at this expedition," he finally brought the topic to what mattered him most, "did you get any luck at getting any cores?"

The silent answer he got was enough to tell him everything. "Sorry boss," Rick apologized, "we were pretty busy running around."

"That's... fine," Jim took a deep breath before finally adding what he wanted to say to them at first, "I'm glad you all came back in one piece. If there is something I cherish most about this, then it would be for all of you to return here alive."

His words were enough to let them all be in deep silence while even the girls had some tears in their eyes.

But this friendly meeting was doomed to end by the hands of the dean.

"Boom!"

All of sudden a big altar appeared in the middle of everyone. It came out of nowhere while the dean appeared next to it, flying high in the sky with a look on his face that irritated Jim and all disciples who weren't part of the core teams.

"This is the judging altar of the expedition," the dean said with a big smile over his face. His cheerful tone was so disgusting to many but he seemed not to care as he even laughed.

"I know you had a hard time dealing with the expedition, and I'm glad that many of you managed to return alive. This is a great day we need to appreciate, a lesson we all must understand..." he paused before slowly adding:

"This academy has been run from ancient times over a certain set of rules that no one can break. Some are written, while the rest are mere facts that everyone can be smart enough to get."

"I wanna punch his face right now," Jim slowly said, expressing his anger.

"But you were the one to stop us from doing anything," Rick whispered and his words made Jim smile.

"But that doesn't mean I don't want to punch this guy in the face."

"Silence!" one of the core campus masters shouted to stop all the whispering running around before the dean returned to say:

"The last days were quite stressful on all of us, so let's get this done."

He turned his gaze towards the altar that had a rounded base and a single towering pillar in the middle.

"All you need to do is to put your rings in here and the judge will make its call. The judge sees everything, so trying to get cores from any places other than the expedition is pointless."

The dean then turned his head towards his associates and one of them stepped forward on the ground while shouting:

"The heads of the teams should come and place their rings one by one. After placing them the judge will decide the worth of the cores in numbers. The highest ten numbers in each grade will be gathered and a list of honors will be formed."

He paused while moving his eyes around, "the list is something many aspire to but only few can reach. Consider yourself lucky to have a score close to the list. And a small piece of advice, don't hold any hopes if you aren't one of the core teams, after all they are the destined ones among you. Nothing personal in this."

"Screw your chosen fools," Jim slowly whispered and it seemed that the master heard him but he only sneered and ignored his remark.

"Go now and place your rings, let the chosen ones win."