The Perfect Specimen

After stepping through the doorway into the room with the lady, the attendant closes it and leaves the two alone.

The woman stares at Alistair with a scrutinizing gaze, while Alistair looks around the room to find out where he is at.

After seeing all she needs to see, she returns her attention to the papers on her desk. The silence in the room lasts for a few seconds before the woman speaks up.

"Name." She says while organizing a stack of papers on her desk.

"What?"

"Did I stutter?"

"No... But what d-"

"Then don't make me repeat myself."

"Alistair." He says grudgingly.

"Okay Alistair lets see here.... Ah okay. Take these and meet up with the group on the outside of the building entrance. You are to follow them and process everything they leave behind. I'm sure you already understand the missions contents from the mission prompt shown to you. Get moving."

She tosses him a sack with an assortment of materials such as ropes and saws and other equipment needed for processing. After the sack slams into Alistair, he is taken aback by the force of the toss coming from such a petite woman that it puts him off balance as he stumbles backwards.

The door he just walked through opens on its own as Alistair comes to a stop just in front of the doorway. As he collects himself he looks up to the woman at the desk and quickly asks,

"Okay but-"

He sees her move her finger towards him and the door slams shut.

"Hmph, fine then." He walks his way towards the entrance and after exiting the building he sees a group of men and students with more seniority than him waiting. Alistair notices that he is the only one with the sack of tools and figures that he is the only one on this specific mission.

They all look over at Alistair and one of the men speak up, "Okay that's fifteen. We can move out now. Everyone remember to travel in five man cells to cover each others backs. This is usually an easy job, but we were informed that monsters have been spotted not too far from the wall and destroying the vegetation in the area."

He notices that the place that he has been teleported to is the gate that he entered through not too long ago. It would seem the guard captain has been replaced for some reason. The place that they are heading towards is a forested part of the valley that he passed through.

Alistair makes his way towards the group and hears them discussing the mission on his way over. Aware that the mission has started with his arrival, he hurries up to get closer to them so he doesn't get left behind.

No one bothers to take a second glance at him as they all start walking towards the forested area. It made sense to Alistair why they didn't take a vehicle. He heard it from a long distance away when he was still outside. If they are trying to hunt monsters, then being as quiet as possible is a good call.

He just does not remember how long of a walk it takes to get there. After what feels like hours of walking, they finally reach their destination. When they do, a few people dig some dirt with their hands and plant a small seed with some runic carvings on it.

Moments later, it sprouts into a full head of cabbage and even continues to grow bigger before stopping at two times the size of normal cabbages.

Unaware of what the strange tactics being implemented could be useful for in killing monsters, Alistair silently follows along hoping to find a method to their madness. The group does this consistently every few hundred feet.

After they walk in a complete circle while planting these strange cabbages, those in charge of the group stop and form an encampment to rest momentarily. Not that Alistair needed to rest, but everyone else is more worse for wear than he is.

As the group sits to relax on broken logs used as chairs and against dead trees for back support, some of the a.d.u.l.ts refuse to relax and consistently patrol their perimeter. One of the relaxing a.d.u.l.ts stands up after having a conversation with a student and projects his voice so everyone can hear him.

"We rest for thirty minutes. Afterwards we will need to go back to each bait placed down and maintain upkeep on them." He goes further on to explain that the cabbages are used for tracking monsters that are primarily herbivores and how some Scralebits have been spotted in the area.

Having some questions for the man, Alistair raises his hand in a school like manner. Caught off-guard at first that someone has a question, he sees that it is only a child and realizes that some questions are unavoidable.

"Yes, the shiny headed boy. What is your question?"

"Why are we hunting herbivores if they don't attack us? Also what are Scralebits?"

"Herbivores can destroy the delicate ecosystem we have here. A lot of the wealth that humanity has, is in the form of special herbs and plants. Think of it as if you let someone else eat your food after you already cooked it, when you are struggling to find anything to eat yourself.

As for Scralebits, they are beasts that are said to have limbs that can stab through a man as if a hot knife through butter and their breeding abilities are terrifying. It was said that a long time ago, these beasts are cause of the deforestation around human kingdoms for some reason due to their reproduction rates being so monstrous.

Not to mention, if they are left to reproduce long enough there is a chance that an ascended beast could be born."

After explaining this, the man directed his attention away from Alistair and towards the group again,

"As stated, these beasts can be dangerous. Once we catch them, show no mercy. I'm sure I don't have to remind you that bleeding hearts in the wilds result in bleeding hearts."

After saying this he sits back down and pulls out a map to look over their location and discusses things with the student next to him. Alistair recognizes this student from the hallways of his school. He wonders why he would choose such a low difficulty mission considering his seniority.

To his surprise though, the student stops speaking with the man and walks over to Alistair. He looks at Alistair before plopping down next to him.

"Hey man, you didn't have to interrupt the leader of the mission. Next time you have a question in these missions just remember to ask one of the students. It's a lot safer since being off campus means if you offend the wrong person, no one would be able to protect you. Not that our weak principal could protect anyone in the first place."

He chuckles to his own joke while waiting for Alistairs response.

"Oh thank you for the advice!" He says before struggling to find the right words to ask his question.

"If you don't mind me asking, how come someone who seems to be thirteen or older is taking such a low ranked mission? Wouldn't it be faster to get recognized by doing more dangerous missions?"

"Of course its faster. The problem isn't wanting to take more dangerous missions. The problem is the highest ranked students usually have a monopoly on those missions. The mission points can do a lot of things in this school, one of them being given first pick at certain mission types.

Besides this missions not as low grade as you might think. It's still a C+ ranked mission after all."

Alistair is given another look at how advantageous being rich can be. He silently murmurs to himself "I need to find a way to secure mission points much faster than I am doing now. I'll just have to ask a rich person how to become rich when I get back!" He remembers the leisurely look on Michelle's face as she bought items without a care in front of him.