Reeve thanked the old man, and then went to the board. Before selecting a mission, he began by scanning the entire board. He wanted to see which missions seemed easy, and which ones seemed difficult. As he scanned the board, there was one mission which piqued his interest.
Difficulty: Beginner
Max Points: 15
Limit: 3 students
Mission: Obtain a clue as to what happened to the six missing students. Give the clue to the Hall of Justice.
Completion: The mission will be considered complete when the mission crystal glows blue.
Reeve looked at the paper with the mission. How would they tell whether the clue he provided was vital or not? Also, what were the minimum points he could get? There was a mention of limiting the number of students participating to 3. Did this mean the points would be shared between the students?
With these questions, Reeve frowned and looked at the board once more. Even though this mission looked quite simple, he knew that a lot of things would probably go wrong the moment he began. There were other missions beside this one. However, it was the only mission with fifteen points as the reward.
He also saw another mission which looked simpler than the first one.
Difficulty: Beginner
Max Points: 10
Limit: 1 student
Mission: Help the Hall of Enchantment by delivering an enchanted weapon to the Merchants' guild.
Completion: The mission will be considered complete when the mission crystal glows blue.
This one required the student to deliver an enchanted weapon to the Merchants' guild. Although it had less points, the fact that only one student could participate meant that the number of potential points the student could get was higher than the first one. Then again, wasn't this mission too simple?
The problem was that Reeve didn't know how they were going to grade him especially using his performance on these missions. Aside from the two missions, the rest of them had varying points, but none of the points exceeded five.
Reeve pondered for a bit, before selecting the first mission. He intended to bring Soren along. Another thing was that he had a feeling that this mission had something to do with Rizaneth's disappearance. Then again, feelings weren't really evidence, and sometimes they could be wrong.
"I have selected the mission", said Reeve, as he handed the paper with the mission to the old man who was the administrator of the hall.
"Oh? Interesting mission you've selected. Are you sure you want to go through with it?" asked the old man.
"Yes! I have a question though, what happens if I fail the mission?" asked Reeve.
"That's simple. You'll lose the number of points equivalent to the points which are supposed to be awarded by the mission!"
"Eh? Isn't this negative marking?? This is ridiculous!" Reeve exclaimed out loud. He had mistakenly blurted out the sentence, and then realized later that no one understood what he meant. This was probably the only consolation he had. With an awkward cough, he asked, "What about the time frame? How long do I have to complete the mission?"
"All missions are supposed to be completed before the semester ends, unless the mission has a time requirement. This means that when a student selects the mission, they have until end of the semester to complete it. If the semester ends before they have completed the mission, it is considered an automatic fail, and points are removed from their grade! Also, students can only select one mission at a time, to prevent some students from hoarding all the missions."
After the old man had explained, Reeve had a bit of understanding of how these things worked. However, that didn't mean he understood everything. In fact, there were a couple of things he didn't understand, but he put them at the back of his head. Experience was the best teacher, after all.
When the administrator saw that Reeve was determined with the selected the mission, he told him to go and place his hand on the crystal he had seen earlier. Reeve was surprised, but he tried his best not to show it. He remembered what happened to the last crystal he touched.
However, he still walked towards the crystal and placed his hand. The crystal absorbed some white substance, which he clearly saw. And then it turned into a light red color.
"Now, if you return after completing the mission, and place your hand on the crystal, it should glow with a blue color", the old administrator spoke.
Reeve thanked him, but before leaving, he asked, "Am I allowed to have outside help?"
"No! You can only get help from the students or professors here", the old man replied.
This meant that asking Merezeka for information about this was totally out of the question. He had to do this by the book, if he was going to pass the mission. After leaving the Hall of missions, Reeve sighed. He wanted to start asking questions, but he didn't know who to ask the questions.
As he was standing in the corridor in a daze, a middle-aged woman, who was crying, was being escorted outside. Reeve frowned deeply. Something didn't seem right, but he couldn't tell what it was.
"Excuse me …"
Reeve turned as he heard the familiar voice. He had been avoiding the owner of this voice for a very long time.
"Hello, how have you been?" he asked, as he turned around.
The owner of the voice was average in height, had short blonde hair and she was wearing a red robe. The girl replied, "I've been well. It has been a long time since we last met. Why didn't you come to look for me at the temple?"
"I've been quite occupied with a lot of things. Even now, I've got a mission I need to complete, I need to make a few portions, and also learn some spells while I'm at it", Reeve answered with a sigh.
He continued, "I apologize, but … I won't be able to join the temple of Malum…"
The girl looked disappointed, as she dropped her head, before saying, "Oh? Why?"