Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 78: The Ten

It’s been two days since he heard the news, and Fell was still angry. He was angry at the team leader of Team 34. He shrugged. "Now I have to kill him too."

"Are you talking about Senk?" Stowig, the team leader of Rank 9, asked.

The two of them were walking along a hallway, their footsteps muted by the thick carpet on the ground. Fell, the team leader of Rank 3, was a tall man with an aged face, even though he was still in his twenties.

"You know who I’m talking about, Stowig. Don’t add to my irritation," Fell said, his voice hard. "Everyone keeps irritating me nowadays—same with that outlaw that lost a lot of my goods the other day."

They came to the end of the hallway, and Stowig quickly opened the door for them. The room they entered was almost like a hall. Five chairs were arranged in a circle, with another five around the first set, making a total of ten.

The meaning was instantly clear—it might be called the Ten, but those who actually made the rules were the five. That’s why each Flag always made sure they had teams in the top five.

As usual, Fell was the last to arrive, and all eyes turned to him. But he ignored them all as his gaze fell on one person—Dlodus! He wanted to know if Dlodus was the one who had put this Atrox into the mess that was happening.

But the man was as unreadable as usual, with his soft smile. Fell finally made his way to his seat, Stowig sitting behind him.

Just then, a female voice that sounded bored said, "Good, we can begin. What do we have for today? Fell, you called this meeting."

The woman was the Rank 1 team leader, Alyndra, from the CrimsonHood. Her hair was dark as night, her eyes darker still, with a piercing gaze. Beside her chair rested a sword almost as tall as her.

Fell nodded and said, "Dlodus, explain what you have the member of your Flag doing."

"Ohhh! Today’s going to be good!" a voice hiccupped. It belonged to a woman short enough that her chair had to be customized. She was Serdan, Rank 4 of the Exiled.

A voice hissed, "Don’t tell me you’re drunk again, Serdan!" The Rank 8 leader of the same Flag, sitting behind her, said.

"Offfff...of course not! Why would I drink when an important show’s about to start? An unknown guy just beat the last of Scuffed Bones’ teams, and now Fell’s looking as if something bad is stuck in his throat.

"Dlodus here doesn’t really know anything...I hope so, but it’ll only make it more interesting! Anyway you look at it, the Scuffed Bones really got hit pretty bad this time." Serdan hiccupped again, giving them all a smile.

Everyone was silent, acting as if they didn’t hear her, but they were all watching Fell for his reaction.

Fell’s face was hardened so tightly it looked as if it would crumble at any time. He glared at Serdan, but the short woman only shrugged and gave him a silly smile.

"Dlodus. Answer my question," Fell said as if biting through metal.

Dlodus gave an easy smile. He knew this was coming and was ready. There was no need to hide anything, after all.

"He’s not a member of any team of our SteelClaw Alliance Flag. From the investigation I did, he’s new here to the second layer, and he’s been going on and on about creating a new team."

Fell had actually done the same investigation, and he knew what Dlodus was saying to be the truth. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have a hand in it. He might be the one pulling the strings, after all.

"He’s still a member of your Flag, and here in the second layer, you are responsible for him."

Dlodus looked at Fell, his eyes flat, the lightning in them seeming to leap and churn.

"You want to claim a single man beating Team 34 as my responsibility?"

Fell twitched. He looked as if he wanted to strangle something. His eyes flashed, something dark and alive stirring in them. He forced himself to relax.

"Of course not. It’s about Atrox. The reason I called this meeting is to talk about what we are going to do now."

Others didn’t say anything. Why should they when they could just enjoy the show?

Although everyone had already heard what was going on, Fell explained it again.

"...now the team has been chased out of their base."

Serdan snorted. "Now that’s shameful. What do you mean a single man does that? Then they don’t deserve to be a team, and that team leader is a weakling. What’s there to talk about when they deserve it?"

The silence that followed was thick with tension as everyone turned to Fell. Meanwhile, Fell was struggling with himself. He knew the unofficial rule was that the weak get stepped on, but it still irritated him.

Then his face calmed.

"What I want to know is what will happen to Atrox. It wasn’t an official duel. Are you going to allow him to just do as he pleases?"

Alyndra leaned back in her seat. "Interesting question. Atrox isn’t an official second-layer fighter, but he’s defeated a team leader. What will we do about this? Make him official?"

"No!" Dlodus and Fell said at the same time. They paused, looked at each other, and then turned back to Alyndra.

Dlodus cleared his throat. "If we do this, then won’t everyone start attacking teams? The outlaws will come out and start doing as they wish!"

"The outlaws..." Alyndra’s face darkened.

Fell said, "This will weaken our rules. Instead, we should crush him right now."

Dlodus winced but nodded as well.

But then a voice rumbled. It was the voice of the Rank 5 team leader of the Forsaken Tribes, Manefor.

"Why throw away a useful tool? Maybe Team 34 isn’t weak; maybe he’s just that strong."

Alyndra liked this. "Then what do you suggest?"

"A test. See if he’s that strong. If he perishes, then good. But if he survives, then you can decide the next step. The Borderland demands we fight with the strong, not against them."

Alyndra’s hand went to her sword, as it always did when she came to a decision.

"I’ll suggest an approach. Test him, as Manefor says. See if he’s the real deal or a fake. We will continue this meeting then."

She stood up and was already going when she suddenly paused.

"Ah, I forgot again. Do you all agree with this?"

They all nodded, but Fell’s face carried a grimace.

She turned to Manefor. "Why don’t you carry out the test? Send someone from your Flag. Tell him I’ll agree to a meeting if he wins."