The Perfect Specimen

Making his way out of the room and on his way to the mission hall, he mentally jots down the best ways to get his revenge.

"...I could trip him in the hall one day when he isn't looking.... I could make a silly nickname and spread it around as fact!"

He giggles to himself at his silly ideas. As he was not really harmed, he did not truly harbor vengeance towards Ahmed. What he did gain, was vigilance.

"He will realize that his magic can't be used to threaten me when he looks for me later in the day. Who's to say if he has other methods to try and force me into submission."

He arrives at the mission hall and requests a mission as per the usual routine. Scrolling through them, it is all simple cleaning jobs around the orphanage.

Thinking that he needs missions that can get him away from the school while he focuses on getting stronger, he decides to ask the attendant personally.

After hearing his plight, the attendant smiles warmly and advises him,

"We do have missions that are available to students that are not listed publicly. To gain access to them though, requires at least one mark of completion for the lowest tier of off the books missions. If they require anything else it will be stated on the briefing."

"How come they don't just add these to the normal missions? Is it a way to make money or something?"

"Not all missions are formed with that purpose. These missions are not requested of you by the school so the school does not offer the materials needed for completion. That is the reason the school does not actively show these.

They are instead offered by the students and others in the city who do not need the full force of a company to solve their issues, and do not have the funds to do so."

Understanding a bit more, Alistair nods and hands his identification badge back to the attendant.

"What missions can I look at with the amount of marks of completion I currently have?"

The attendant takes back the card and after looking on the monitor and inputting a few commands, he replies,

"It would seem you have three marks of completion. These are the current missions that are available to you."

The list in front of Alistair refreshes and he sees three more missions show up on his monitor.

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harvest at least twenty rat bladders. Marks: 3

...

Come to the training room as a test subject for spell training. Mark: 1

...

Fix personal broken automobile. Mark: 1

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Alistair immediately notices that he can cross off the mission about the automobile as he has no knowledge in that field. Before looking into the other two quests further, he asks,

"How did I get three marks of completion? I only completed two missions."

This time it was the attendants turn to be confused, he said,

"It says that your team has completed three missions right here. 'Cleaning equipment in the cafeteria', 'Waste disposal', and 'Illumination needed'."

Alistair suddenly remembers that Michelle and him formed a team. He thought that it only lasted until the mission was over, but apparently not. She also managed to complete a mission without him knowing.

"I'll have to thank her later. Weird though, that she hasn't talked to me about a quest or even attended class... I'll have to ask her later I guess."

Tossing another chore onto his future self, he looks through the two mission choices. After seeing the details of the spell training mission, he immediately turned it down for fear of going out of control if something goes wrong.

"It would be a good environment to stress test the limits of my body though... Maybe I'll ask for

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harvest at least 20 rat bladders. Marks: 3

Description: Novice runecrafter needs rat bladder ingredients for crafting training. The more, the better. There has been a shortage of rats in the sewer recently, so someone specialized in tracking is preferable.

Time limit: (Repeatable)

Rewards: 1 point per rat bladder

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Alistair notices a few differences immediately from this mission and the schools given missions.

"Why are the marks so high? Also, where is the difficulty rating at?"

"The marks represent the difficulty rating the mission giver puts to each mission. Also, I should warn you that repeatable quests do not give marks of completion.

As for why the mission giver has given this mission a higher mark level could be related to the recent incident and rumors revolving around the assassins and the sewer system. The sewers are also the best place to search for rats in the city."

Beginning to understand the missions system in the school, Alistair decides to accept the mission and seclude himself in the sewer while under the pretext of searching for rats. Since it is repeatable, he can stay in there during the time he is not training or in class and no one would look for him.

"What I need right now isn't a way to move up through the rankings just yet. I need to find a way to amass some wealth to my name so I can properly prepare and strengthen myself for tougher challenges in the future and ultimately...."

The face of the beast that he remembered from the nightmare flashed in his mind, before shaking his head and looking to the attendant.

"Do you know if the library has maps of the sewers underneath the school?"

The attendant smiles and shakes his head,

"No, but I can sell one to you at the price of 10 points per level of the sewer system. The farther down you go, the more rats you are likely to run into, as well as many more dead ends and cave-ins."

Alistair looks at the attendant with mouth agape and stunned.

"..."

The attendant maintains the plastered smile across his face in response.

"..."

"But I don't have that many points left..." Alistair says with a heartbreaking face.

"But you do have enough." The attendants plastered smile never moves.

"..."

"..."

Moments later, Alistair leaves the mission hall with a map in hand and a scowl on his face. After being subjected to Ahmed's threats, he merely was put on guard. After being subjected to multiple attendants sales pitches, he truly became vengeful.

"...I could trip him in the hall one day when he isn't looking.... I could make a terrible nickname and spread it around as fact!"

He laughs to himself viciously as he heads off towards the the sewer system. He does not feel the need to prepare for any unexpected events as he feels that he should be significantly strong enough to handle anything thrown at him.

"It's totally not because I can't afford anything else but the freaking map... Definitely not..."

He despondently slinks to the entrance of the stairwell to the sewers. After getting to the place where he remembers blood caking the steps, he sees a white outline in the shape of a person painted on the steps and caution tape placed around it.