Whittaker nods his head in thoughts,
'Safety comes first. If I get hurt or die then there will be no more opportunities to earn money. So, I will follow his advice and learn some more pure-mana spells before entering a dungeon.'
Shadow swiped the holographic screen one after another in dissatisfaction. All of the high-risk quests had low rewards for completion or demanded a higher power level awakened. He won't do quests with low rewards and high risk. He was trying to find a suitable quest with reasonable rewards.
For a while, Whittaker sat still on a chair placed beside Shadow. However, as time passed, he got impatient. Suddenly, he inquired, "What are you doing?"
"Surfing the mana net to search for quests suitable for us." He swiped one more time, and his lips thinned into a smile, "Look, I found it."
Whittaker gazed at the screen and saw the details of the quest.
[Quest: Slay a pack of Snow Wolves, and collect the body of their alpha.
Danger level: F-ranked
Rewards: 100 Royal credit points, 2 F-ranked (1-star) Health potions, 5 F-ranked (2-star) Mana potions.]
He knew about potions, so he asked Shadow the most important question. "What are Royal credits points?"
'How to explain it, hmm...' He tapped his fingers on the table. Soon after, Shadow replied, "Royal credit points can be exchanged for money, items, potions, and books. 1 Royal credit point can be exchanged for 1 Platinum bar."
Whittaker thought, '100 Royal credit point can be exchanged for 100 platinum. 50 platinum was enough to buy a big house in the Elihu town, another fifty for a piece of land. So, earning a thousand platinum bar should be enough to purchase a piece of land and build a house in Frost Fall City.'
Shadow continued, "The Royal credit points you earn from completing a quest will be stored on the backside of your student Id card." Saying that he pulled out his Student Id card and flashed its backside on Whittaker's face.
The snow-haired boy was dazzled, he said while rudely pointing and staring at Shadow,
"You... you... you are really rich!"
The number reflected on the backside of his Id card was 2765 Royal credits.
Shadow smiled and didn't explain much, and said while feeling slightly embarrassed,
"Hey, I can't accept this quest using my mana com. So, I will use your mana com to accept it before someone else does."
In response, the snowy-haired youth excited crystal eyes blinked and he asked, "Why?"
Shadow replied, "In the Academy Quest hall, there are a lot of rules. A student can only accept one quest a day, and the type of quest has to be changed regularly. There are two types of quest, hunting, and gathering. Yesterday, I completed a hunting quest, so today, I can only go on a gathering type quest."
Shadow could hide this information or tell a lie but he told the truth that earned him more of Whittaker trust.
Whittaker replied, "Sure, go ahead and accept it before someone else does."
'Honesty is the best policy!' With a subtle smile on his face, Shadow thought while accepting the Snow wolves quest from Whittaker mana com. Then he started surfing the mana net by using his personal mana com.
In the meantime, Whittaker pondered on his words. He was far intelligent than others his age and understood the essential meaning of his word.
'Yesterday, Shadow has completed a hunting quest so today, he couldn't go for a hunting quest, unless he uses the loophole in the system, that is to party up with a person that can take a hunting quest! That's why he took hold of me.'
He didn't feel bad, rather he felt happy as he had learned a great tactic to constantly take hunting quest every day. He looked down and saw Shadow rummaging the mana net for a gathering quest.
Shadow was searching for a gathering quest that goes hand in hand with the Snow wolves hunting quest. In the end, he found one and accepted it.
[Quest: Gather 12 stalks of Silver Moon grass
Danger level: F-ranked
Rewards: 10 Royal credit points, 1 F-ranked (2-star) Mana potion]
The reward for gathering quest was noticeably more than ten times less than the hunting quest.
"Sadly, I can only accept this low pay high-risk quest, as Silver Moon grass are usually grown in Silver Soul Forest, the place where the dens of the Snow wolves are in abundance," Shadow muttered, but it was loud enough for Whittaker to hear.
He unplugged the mana coms, returned one to Whittaker, stored the second in his storage ring, and stood up. Finally, he pressed some buttons on the table, and a holographic screen popped up,
[Opening a teleportation portal to Adventure Association building located in Swadehash City requires 10 Royal credit points]
[Pay ten credits]
'No! That's ten platinum!' Whittaker thought in his heart while Shadow swiped his Student ID card through the slot on the card reader installed in the shiny table.
A portal opened up beside them, along with a message that said,
[The portal will close in ten seconds]
"Let's go in before the portal closes," Shadow said to Whittaker who was saddened, mulling over the loss of his ten platinum bar.
They stepped into the portal. The moment they vanished from the Quest Hall of Frost Fall Academy was also the moment when they got transported to the Adventure Association building located in Swadehash City.